One More Night
by londonbella
Summary: Two decades after Cassandra Parker and her murderous older brother, Kai, had been trapped in the 1994 Prison World, they receive two unexpected companions: a witty Salvatore vampire and a feisty Bennett witch. Damon and Bonnie desperately struggle to return to those they love with unsolicited help from Kai, and when stakes are sky high, some mistakes just can't be undone.
1. Because You're Evil

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to The Vampire Diaries. However, I do own whatever story lines and characters that are added and I also own the writing of the story. **

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**Chapter 1**

**Because You're Evil**

xxx

THE END

The book didn't actually end that way; though it would certainly be nice for something to be so straightforward for a change. She'd read thousands of books—and that was no figurative number. With the book Cassandra Parker closed in her hand, it all added up to 5,435 books crammed in the depths of her brain, plot lines undoubtedly muddled and characters undeniably forgotten. Cassandra took the book in front of her and set it aside in the stack of finished books she had next to her at the desk in the cluttered bookstore. She always tried to make an attempt to clean up after herself when she had binge-read so many books at one time, but she rarely ever got around to it. Every book had been picked from the shelf, words copied from crisp and untouched pages, and carefully set down in random places, covering the entire floor of the quaint, archaic-styled shop in the smallest part of New Jersey.

There was a certain system to her madness. The books on her left were unread, the books on her right had been ravished already, and the books behind her were novels she'd already completed, possibly more than once. By now, it was impossible to ask her what her favorite book was. Her knowledge ranged from books on cultural customs to action-packed murder mysteries. Turning to her left, she looked around her space to find another book to read, but there were none queued up for her next fictional adventure.

Realizing that she'd exhausted all of the resources in the bookstore, Cassandra let out a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, tilting her head up to the ceiling where a skylight was placed right above her head. Across her eyes, the solar eclipse appeared in view of her pupils as it did every single day.

Cassandra relaxed for a moment. It was strange to think that, in a situation like hers, she would never get time to relax, but the truth of the matter was that relaxing was useless. Relaxing was good enough for her first year in the hellhole she'd been trapped in. But after twenty years stuck in the same, deserted world, staring at the same damn solar eclipse, relaxing was about as pointless as sleeping. There was nothing to strive for, nowhere to go to. Her entire life was utterly empty. Reading was the only thing that could pass the time.

_Reading and drinking, _Cassandra thought to herself as she lowered her head back to a leveled position and reached forward while kicking her legs up onto the desk. She grabbed a bottle of Merlot she had nursed since she had taken it from the convenience store across the street and brought it to her lips. In the real world, she'd be arrested for drinking alcohol at age 18. In the world she lived in, the quiet world, there was no one to stop her.

The eclipse almost seemed like it was haunting her; taunting her, even. Reminding Cassandra that the day she repeated over and over again for the last twenty years was the worst day of her entire existence. It taunted her about the life that she could've had and would never get a chance to live. In theory, she could attempt to occupy herself by pretending she was in one of the novels she read, but she'd tried that before and it didn't work out so well. It was just so sad, listening to the sound of nothing as she talked to herself. She rarely talked when she was alone, hating the sound of her own voice. She was tired of it, and it was a part of her being. How sad was that?

Unable to stare at the devastating eclipse any longer, Cassandra swung her legs off the desk and, with the bottle of Merlot gripped tightly in her hand, she stood from the desk to leave the retired bookstore and find another one to raid. Before she could even contemplate her first step out of the shop, the front door she was heading for opened with an annoying ringing sound. For just a split moment, Cassandra was surprised, but she knew there was only one human being that could possibly walk through the door.

She set down the bottle of wine exasperatedly as Kai Parker came sauntering through the blind-covered door with an amused expression on his face.

"Bells," he noted with a smile. "This whole town is so charming. You really know how to pick 'em, Cassie."

"Don't call me that," she chided. Kai ignored her.

"Drinking, little sister?" Kai looked at the bottle of Merlot on the desk beside her fingertips. He turned back to her with a disapproving sound made from his tongue and a shake of his head as if he were her interim father. "That's illegal!"

"You're one to talk about illegal acts, Kai." With a frown, she grabbed the bottle in her hand and moved towards the door. "Get out of my way. I was just about to leave."

His smile never faltered. "Leaving so soon? How long did it take you to finish this store, huh? Hey, wouldn't your efforts be wasted better in…I don't know, the Library of Congress or something? They've got a whole lot of books for you to stick your nose in. I wonder how long it'd take you to get through all of that."

"It took me three years," she mumbled under her breath. Kai gave an impressed look towards her, but she rolled her eyes and ignored him, brushing past his shoulder and, with a sip of her wine, stepped out into the darkened light that was starting to lift from the eclipse as it passed. As she walked down the sidewalk of the deserted Garden State's streets, she could hear Kai's footsteps behind her as he struggled to catch up.

"Look, I know you don't like me." Cassandra let out a snort, to which Kai shrugged. "Okay…it's no secret that you despise me. You and I have been stuck here together for twenty years and you use the entire world to avoid me so…I get it. But I came here because I wanted to know that I'm not crazy."

Her hazel eyes snapped up at him, amused. "Well if that's what you came here for, you might as well go back. You are crazy, Kai. Psychopathic, in fact. But we knew this already."

He sighed dramatically. "Ugh, Cassie, you always make things so difficult!"

"Don't call me that," she repeated with an edge in her voice. Kai stepped in front of her, stopping her brisk pace short. He held up his hands defensively, seeing the concerned and frightened look on her face.

"A few days ago, I was just…you know, doing what I do…sitting in a store eating some pork rinds when I felt something." Kai's blue eyes widened hopefully. "Did you feel it, too?"

Cassandra stared blankly. "Did I feel what?"

"Did you feel _it, _Cassie?! It!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to quit calling me that?" Angrily, Cassandra brushed past him again as the darkness went away in the sky and the sun reigned brightly above them. "And I have no idea what this 'it' feeling you're talking about is. I feel bored. I feel defeated. But that's every day. It's nothing new."

Kai groaned. "Come on. You can't seriously tell me that you didn't feel something two days ago! It was at night, I got this strange…sensation. Cassie!" He reached out and grabbed her arm as she tried to cross the street to get away from him. Annoyed, Cassandra turned around at her brother's eccentric eyes. His voice dropped to a hopeful whisper. "I think…I think there's someone else here!"

Cassandra stopped in the middle of the street, inches away from a ring of orange cones identifying a hazardous situation. A nervous feeling overcame her chest as she realizes that she knew exactly what Kai was talking about. Two days before, she had been sitting in one of the coffee shops on the street reading one of the books she'd taken from the bookstore and she felt a massive wave of power, almost as if it was a surge passing through her and continuing along their desolate world. But if others were with them, that meant that, whoever they were, they were in danger. _She _was in danger. If Kai managed to escape the world they lived in, their family's lives would be turned upside down. Twenty years wasn't enough time to pass for Kai to be able to escape the world without major consequences.

There was a part of Cassandra that wanted nothing more than to get out of her repeating hell. But there was another part, the selfless part, that knew if she was given a choice to leave with Kai or stay with Kai, she would choose the latter.

When Cassandra turned around, she tried to discourage her brother. "That's impossible. We're the only two people here, Kai! We're the only who people who've been here for the last twenty years and we're the only two people who will _ever _be here!"

Kai shook his head and stepped forward with a sadistic smile on his lips. "No. That's where you're wrong, Cassie. I think there is someone here…I just…I can't seem to pinpoint where." The black-haired psychopath sighed. "See, the problem is, I could spend forever trying to track it down. But that would just take _so _long. Who knows? By then, they might even be gone—so that's why I came to you."

Cassandra opened her mouth to ask what he wanted from her, but she knew exactly what it was. Just as her mouth opened, she shut it tightly and squared her jaw.

"Forget it."

"You want out of here just as much as I do!"

"No!" Cassandra shouted at him. "I don't, Malachai! Wanna know why? Because you're evil and you deserve to be in here."

"We both know you don't." He practically sang the words, expecting them to cut her like a sharp knife would. Instead, she retained the blow and licked her lips out of spite, trying to hold back her anger at him. Twenty years of Kai up her ass, threatening her left and right—killing her, even—so that he could get his hands on her magic. Unfortunately for him, she'd stashed it away in a place where he was sure to never look for it. "Don't you want out of here, Cassie? Don't you want to live your life? You're so young. You had a whole life ahead of you before I ruined it."

She tensed, gritting her teeth to refrain from lashing out at him. The good news was that she was always gifted at holding back her anger. So, in a softer voice, she calmly spoke.

"I'm not giving you my magic." She shook her head tightly. "I don't care how much I want to get out of here. You deserve to rot in hell for everything you've done—which is exactly what you're doing. Now if you'll excuse me."

Cassandra turned on her heel, ready to step onto the sidewalk and return to her daily activities, praying that Kai would let her go. Instead, Kai took a strong hold of her wrist and forced her back, stepping forward with a murderous look in his eyes that she knew too well. Being alone in a quiet world was bound to drive a person absolutely insane—even more insane than he had been before. She no longer saw a brother when she looked at him; she hadn't for a long time. But he had no excuse. They both had been outcasts before imprisonment, but it was Kai's fault that he let the pressure build up so high that he snapped. She didn't have one ounce of pity in her bones toward him.

"I'm done asking nicely, Cassie," Kai growled. "I've been looking for your magic for twenty years. Hand it over."

"You think I carry it on me?" She struggled against him with a bitter laugh. "I'm not _that _stupid!"

"Cassie, you—!"

She could hear the threat build in Kai's throat, but before he could get the whole sentence out, she thrusted her arm forwards and upwards so hard that Kai was pushed back. He had been teetering on the edge of the street and the construction pit behind them, blocked by the earlier mentioned hazard cones. With one simple change of balance, he fell backwards into air. A few seconds after he'd fallen into the pit, she could hear the toe-curling sound of bones cracking in an echoed space and she knew Kai was dead.

Her cold eyes flickered over the opening of the pit and she mumbled quietly, "I told you to stop calling me that."

xxx

She didn't have a lot of time. Cassandra was aware of the fact that her brother would come back to life, eventually. He would have to climb out of the pit, which would certainly delay his chase after her, but she still had to hurry. Her main goal was to get to wherever the magic that had pulsed through both her and her brother before Kai could ever reach it. If he did, she was afraid of what would happen. She needed to see it for herself before Kai did; otherwise, there would be no getting out of it.

Cassandra never did like to drive, but for what she needed to do, it was necessary. She'd taught herself how to hot-wire a car the first year she'd been trapped in their prison/hell so that she would be able to get around easily. She had it down to a science by the time she tapped into the nearest car she saw, made sure the gas was full, and stepped on it. She went nearly 100 MPH down the highway as she raced state lines all the way to Washington, D.C., where she drove to Independence Avenue and appeared at the front of the institution. She wasted not a step and sprinted inside of the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. Kai was so stupid that it nearly pained her; he claimed to be so much smarter than everyone else when she had magic right under his nose. Of course, it wasn't her full magic—that, she had stored away somewhere she hadn't been back to in years.

There was a time when Cassandra realized that Kai would do anything to get out of their prison. That was the time when she realized that she needed something to protect herself, something that would give her leverage if Kai ever threatened to do worse than he'd already had.

Cassandra went all the way to the back of the library, in the darkest corner that was far out of the way. Hurriedly, she knelt down to the bottom shelf and grabbed the very last book and flipped it open. The book was hollow, as she had carved it out the first year that they had been trapped. She had always been an inventive girl, quick on her feet. She supposed she had to be with Kai threatening to kill her, hurt her, etc.

She reached inside of the hollowed-out hardcover and retrieved the small faded Post-It note folded in fourths. Setting the book aside, Cassandra unfolded the piece of paper and observed her slurred handwriting in black sharpie, reading somewhat legibly only two words.

_Emergency Magic_

Cassandra couldn't help but chuckle softly. The idea might've been inventive, but she could've sworn she'd put something more creative than 'Emergency Magic' on those Post-It notes that she'd hidden across the country and around the world in case she was ever cornered. She didn't have a lot of magic in each Post-It note, nor did she have many Post-It notes to begin with. There were a total of 8 around the globe, and she just hoped that she would be near one if Kai ever decided to blow up at her. Luckily, she figured that the perfect place to hide one of the notes was in one of the largest libraries full of paper—it was nearly like finding a needle in a haystack. She could admit that she needed a more creative punchline.

When she absorbed the magic, she knew from the start that it wouldn't last long. It was the tiniest drop of magic; equivalent to a single droplet of water. It would eventually leave her system, but the moment she pressed her fingers down on the Post-It note with the intent to absorb the magic she had touched it with, she could feel something inside of her start to form. It was like a pulse, only, it was leading her to where the other magic had come from. The magic seemed to draw her like a magnet, and after putting the book back in its place, Cassandra started out of the library as fast as she could, hoping the magic would keep long enough for her to get to where the pulse was leading her. Her actions were on impulse as she jumped into her car and, yet again, stepped on the gas pedal and just drove.

xxx

He couldn't take it anymore. Three whole days and he already felt mentally drained, the sadness and pity eating him up alive inside. Damon Salvatore didn't like to think of himself as a pessimist, but what else could he be? He was stuck on a repeating loop—with Bonnie Bennett, no less—and there seemed to be no way out. Each day, a solar eclipse came across the sky and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to take it. Damon and Bonnie fought like dogs, he made the worst pancakes in history, and there was no one to tell them where the hell they were. There were times when he'd wished that he was in a world that was solely his own, but having experienced it, he could live without it. The quiet, it seemed to eat away at him.

It had gotten to the point where Damon needed fresh air. Three days in the boarding house and he felt like he had been in it for ten entire years. As a vampire, it seemed odd to be so stressed over such a little thing like time, but as a vampire in the real world, you had things to do. People to kill. Here? All he had was the Bennett witch.

And he missed Elena. He missed Elena so much his heart hurt every single time he thought about it. He missed his brother, too. All he wanted was to get back to the two people he loved; he wanted that more than he wanted anything before. He didn't want Katherine that much, he didn't want blood that much. Just Elena and his brother. That's all he needed.

Bourbon, too. Couldn't forget the bourbon. Damon looked down at his hand and, realizing that he was gripping the bourbon bottle by the neck so tightly thinking about the people waiting for him back home, he loosened his grip a bit and brought the opening to his lips, where he took one long chug and stopped int he middle of the town square—the empty town square, that was. The quiet town square. The 1994 town square.

Finding no reason not to indulge, Damon lowered himself to the ground and laid down on his back, looking up at the darkened sky full of stars. He drank more of his bourbon, thought more about the girl he loved unconditionally and the brother he had once hated so much but truly missed, and closed his eyes. Who would blame him if he slept in the middle of the road? No one. Because no one was _there. _

Or so he thought.

Damon's eyes snapped open when he sensed another presence. He could hear the pulsing of a heart and he immediately realized that Bonnie had gone out looking for him. Damon thought about ignoring her, possibly waiting until she'd gone, but he knew he was pretty obvious. He was lying in front of the City Hall's steps with a bottle of bourbon-whiskey pointed in the air. He wasn't inconspicuous at all.

With a heavy sigh, Damon brought himself up to a sitting position and blinked a few times, rolling his eyes as he could see a figure in the distance.

"You didn't have to come all the way out here, Bon-Bon. I could've found my way back." Damon forced himself up from the ground and stumbled slightly, and then shrugged while bringing the bottle to his mouth again. "Eventually."

But just as he took a sip from the bottle of alcohol, he realized that whoever was approaching him wasn't Bonnie. Far from it, actually. And this frightened him to no end—it scared the hell out of him. There was someone else! Someone _else. _

Whoever had joined him had stopped and stared, but Damon couldn't really see all that clearly. In a flash, he was in front of the girl, it seemed, and he listened as she quietly gasped and took a step back, her eyes full of confusion as she processed his quick movement. Damon didn't know whether to be excited or terrified. The girl didn't look so harmful; she was about 5'2" with dark, slightly curled hair that matched the color of the night and hazel eyes that stood out like beacons. Damon's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?"

Cassandra cleared her throat. "Who are you?"

"I asked you first," Damon pointed out skeptically. She stared at him blankly. "How are you here right now? Where are you from? How did you get here?"

"I-I..." She couldn't bring it in herself to tell him. He was the first person she'd spoken to in twenty years excluding Malachai. And he was tall, dark, older, and handsome. Cassandra was at a loss, completely choked up. It was all so confusing.

"You know what?" Damon mumbled to himself before he took the bourbon bottle in his hand and swung it forward so fast that Cassandra didn't even get a chance to process it before glass shattered all over her and blood poured out of her head so fast that she fell forward, her pupils eclipsing with darkness. Damon caught her carelessly and shook off the glass on his hand as he picked her up and sighed. "It's just easier this way."

xxx

When Damon returned to the boarding house with the dark-haired girl in his arms, he saw Bonnie the first second he walked through the door. She was sitting on the couch flipping through a book in her hand when Damon crossed the threshold.

"Hey, Bennett." Bonnie looked up and did a double take, a look of horror and shock overcoming her face as she saw the other body. Damon walked over to the couch she was on and Bonnie immediately jumped up, but didn't move from the front of the couch. Damon frowned at her. "Scoot."

"W-What is this?" Bonnie stammered, almost angrily. Damon set the mysterious girl down on the sofa with a sigh.

"I found her wondering through the town square." He straightened and turned back at her. "She seemed suspicious."

"Damon!" the witch exclaimed. "That's another person!"

"Yeah. I've gathered that."

"Don't you know what this means?" Bonnie shook his arm desperately, but Damon knotted his eyebrows at her.

"Yeah. This means I need you to get me some rope from the basement." Damon looked down at the girl on the couch. "We've got a long day ahead of us."

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**Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	2. My Way or No Way

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

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**Chapter 2**

**My Way or No Way**

xxx

"Wakey, wakey..."

Cassandra felt her head roll as she let out a sound low in her throat subconsciously reacting to the pain she could feel in the side of her head. Her entire skull felt heavier than a block of solid gold, and no matter how she moved it, she couldn't get comfortable. When her eyelids lifted, sticky from the grogginess that she felt, she blinked a few times to get a good look at her surroundings, only to jump back when she saw what was going on. The supernatural creature who had hit her over the head with a bourbon bottle was standing in front of her with a twisted smile on his face, and once she struggled to get up, she realized that she had been tied down to a chair sitting in front of an uncomfortably hot fireplace. She struggled more to get out from the knots holding her to the chair, but they were too strong. The ropes cut into her skin and prevented her from struggling further, risking the chance of more damage to her skin that she was sure already had purple bruising on them.

With widened eyes, she looked up at the dark-haired man, who was holding a poker over his shoulder nonchalantly, and a young, tan-skinned, dark-haired female who looked weary of the situation. Cassandra looked back and forth between them, and though she was terrified, she refused to let them see it. She quit struggling and relaxed, taking a deep breath before she began.

"Who are you?" she stammered, opening her eyes and looking up at her two captors for answers. The dark-haired man frowned.

"Funny. I thought this was supposed to be _my _interrogation. After all, I am the one holding the poker." He waved the poker in his hand as if he wanted to show it off to her. But the poker wasn't what terrified her; the fact that there were other people was what did the trick. Suddenly, the dark-haired man pressed the poker forward and right at Cassandra's shoulder, where she winced at the uncomfortable sharp tip. It wasn't enough to break skin, but one wrong movement and it would cut through her flesh.

"Damon!" the female beside him hissed as she reached forward and grabbed the body of the poker, forcefully lowering it to his side. Damon's eyes never left Cassandra as the female pushed him back. "Are you insane? Look at her! She's terrified!"

"Terrified or not, Bonnie, she's _here. _Someone else is _here_," he spat.

"We're not savages, Damon! I'm not going to let you torture someone just because she showed up out of the blue and she's 'suspicious'." Cassandra detected a bitter tone in Bonnie's tone. The girl turned around with the man behind her clearly furious, but instead of threatening her with the poker, Bonnie just stepped forward and sighed. "What's your name?"

She was hesitant. Nothing about the two companions she had seemed trustworthy. After all, one of them had hit her over the head with a bottle of alcohol and tied her up to a chair. But there was nothing she stood to lose by not giving them such a simple answer.

"Cassandra," she answered wearily, looking up at Bonnie and back at Damon. Both of them were silent, the name meaning nothing to them at all, but Cassandra shifted in her chair and began hesitantly, "Look...I don't have to be tied up. I came here because I wanted to."

"Wanted to?" Damon repeated behind Bonnie, his voice more of a scoff than anything. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Damon, let her speak," Bonnie snapped at him. He rolled his eyes and plopped down on the couch across from the fireplace without a word, clearly annoyed. Cassandra didn't know what to tell them, let alone how to say it. Instead of answering, she looked over at Damon and replaced her answer with a question.

"What are you?" she asked quietly, earning his irritated attention. She could see the volume in his blue eyes as she continued, "You...came over to me so _fast_, I...I have no idea what you are."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Would you look at that? She changed the subject." He looked up at Bonnie. "Can we stop wasting time now?"

"What are you?" Cassandra pushed, eager for an answer. Bonnie turned over to Damon.

"What is your problem, Damon? We've been here for three days and you've already started torturing someone? She can't be any older than...18!"

"Hate to break it to you, Bon-Bon, but 18-year-olds can have secrets, too! And if one of those secrets can get us out of here then _hell _yes, I'm going to torture her!"

"Hey!" Cassandra said, louder this time, barely earning Damon and Bonnie's attention. "I asked you—"

Before she could get her entire sentence out, she felt a grip around her neck and the next thing she knew, she was ripped out of the ropes on her chair and Damon was standing inches away from her, his hand with a firm grip on her shirt, and she clearly noticed the abnormality in his features. He had fangs, bloodshot eyes, and veins that slithered down his face that set him clearly different from everyone else. Bonnie protested behind him and with a snarl, Damon unlatched his hand from Cassandra's shirt and she stumbled back into the chair, free of the ropes, her face overcome with shock and terror.

"Vampire," she whispered quietly in disbelief. Bonnie and Damon watched her reaction as she swallowed. "How the hell did a vampire get here? How the hell did...did _anyone _get in here? I just don't understand..."

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked softly. "What do you mean how did we get in here? Why don't you understand?"

Damon turned around at Cassandra, a confused look in his eye as he realized there was something astronomically off about her. "What the hell are _you_?"

"Me?" Cassandra looked up at him with a scoff. Damon and Bonnie, with arms crossed, waited for her to answer the question, and at last, she ended up responding, "I..._was _a witch. I don't have any powers anymore, but I was one."

"You were a witch?" Bonnie asked, somewhat of a sympathetic tone in her voice. Cassandra nodded at her. "How did you lose your powers?"

Cassandra was quiet. She didn't want to say anything to them about Malachai—it just wasn't safe for anyone, let alone the two new strangers in their world. Damon observed her silence, and with a scoff, he noted, "She's not going to tell us anything, Bonnie."

"Cassandra, I was a witch, too." Ignoring Damon, Bonnie stepped forward and sat on the table beside Cassandra. Cassandra eyed her carefully, disbelieving that a vampire was with a witch. Vampires and witches were enemies, she knew that much—she wasn't completely clueless. She'd just never had the pleasure of meeting one herself. "I, um...I lost my powers because I-I died. But then I came back and now..."

"Now we're stuck in this place. A vampire and a Bennett Witch. Absolutely useless," Damon mumbled under his breath, his back turned away from them. Cassandra's eyes snapped up at him as she realized what he had said. _Bennett Witch. _Bonnie was a Bennett Witch? That meant that Bonnie...that if Bonnie got her powers back...

"Please," Bonnie began. "If you know anything, you have to tell us."

Cassandra bit down on her lip as she tried to think it over. It would be so easy to tell them the truth, to let them know that Kai was going to come after them, but she knew that it was the option that was unsafe for all of them. If Kai found out where they were—which, essentially, could take him the rest of eternity—he would stop at nothing to get out, especially considering that Bonnie was the key to it all. There were no words to describe how strongly Cassandra felt about not letting that happen, and she knew that Kai would murder whoever he needed to and hurt whoever he wanted to leave his prison. Telling Bonnie and Damon what they wanted to know could get them killed. Unlike Cassandra and her brother, they weren't prisoners in the world they lived in. They would die, and she knew that.

So she lied. "I-I'm the only one here. I've been here for twenty years and...and I'm not sure why. I don't know how to leave."

"Bullshit." Damon turned around at her, more exasperated than angry as he was before. Bonnie looked immediately annoyed with Damon's outburst, but more disappointed over Cassandra's confession than anything else. Damon walked over to Bonnie and looked down at Cassandra. "When did you come here?"

"I don't know," she said sternly.

"Who put you here?"

"I don't know."

"Why are you here?"

"I don't know!" Cassandra had risen from her seat and had stepped forward so that she was right in Damon's face, her breath heavy and the anger inside of her managing to escape. Damon stared at her with sour features, but after realizing that she had snapped, she took a step back and sat back down in the chair, lowering her voice. She looked at Bonnie. "I lost my powers before I came here. I have no way out. But I've been alone in here for...God knows how long, and when I sensed that there was someone else, I had to come and see for myself. I chose to come here."

xxx

Bonnie and Damon spent the following hours arguing intensely over what to do with Cassandra. Cassandra was left in the parlor where she'd been tied up again, this time with looser knots, but she could hear the arguing from all the way across the house. Bonnie and Damon were in the kitchen, discussing their unexpected guest.

"What reason would she have to lie, Damon?" Bonnie asked him, exhausted with his weariness.

Damon scoffed. "If we knew the whole story, I'm sure we would know!"

"You said you found her wondering in the town square. Why would she come to Mystic Falls randomly? No one comes to this town! She said she _wanted _to come here because she sensed us."

"Which would be hard to do without magic, right?" Damon countered. Bonnie shrugged and threw her hands up.

"This place is full of magic! What sent us here probably had everything to do with magic! If she was a witch, she'd be able to sense...something," she defended. Damon frowned at her.

"Even you don't believe that," he told her pointedly. Bonnie grimaced at him.

"Look, whether you believe her or not, she's still here. That's one more person who wants to get out of here just as much as we do." Damon fell silent, reluctantly so, and Bonnie moved towards the exit of the kitchen to go back to the stranger in the parlor. "I'm not denying that she doesn't know anything, Damon. I'm denying that holding her prisoner here is the way to get that information."

"Don't blame me when we find out she's lying to us, Bonnie," Damon warned her as she moved to leave. Bonnie froze and, for a moment, thought about ignoring him. But, then, she turned around and clenched her fist tightly as she replied.

"We're doing this my way," Bonnie told him flatly. He straightened, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I'm serious. My way or no way."

He couldn't argue with her anymore. Bonnie walked out and Damon was tired of trying to control the situation; so many things had gotten out of hand, he didn't know where to begin. Bonnie walked out into the parlor and saw Cassandra sitting in her chair, relaxed as if she weren't tied to a chair by an extremely hot fireplace when there was a vampire in the other room desperate to kill her and get answers for himself. Without wasting time, Bonnie reached down and untied the knots at Cassandra's hands.

"Damon doesn't believe you," Bonnie informed her as she undid the knots. Cassandra nodded.

"I get it. Honestly, I'm confused about this, too. I've been alone for so many years. It's hard to believe there are other people to talk to."

Bonnie let the ropes fall to the floor and she helped Cassandra out of the chair. Cassandra smiled at her and Bonnie gave her a smile as well, realizing that it must've been hard. The ex-witch sighed. "You can stay here if you want to. There are plenty of bedrooms in this place and I'll make sure Damon doesn't try anything stupid. I mean, we're all alone; we might as well be alone together."

"Thanks." Honestly, Cassandra was surprised at the offer, but she didn't turn it down. Bonnie nodded at her.

"There's a guest room to the right once you get up the stairs," she offered. With a small smile, Cassandra followed her directions and went up the stairs to the guest room in the boarding house. Once Cassandra was gone, Bonnie felt Damon's presence behind her, pouring himself a glass of bourbon from behind the couch.

"It's a bad idea," Damon warned her. Bonnie crossed her arms.

"But it's my idea."

He looked up at her without protesting, only looking at her with eyes pointed towards her as he left the parlor with his bourbon and left Bonnie's sight. Bonnie, exhausted after the days events, looked out the window and watched as a darkened shadow came across the sky, signaling that the eclipse was overhead. She'd had to deal with the sight of the eclipse for three days—and God knows how many Cassandra had to sit through. A part of her was hopeful that, with another head to brainstorm, they would find a way out. But another part, a more realistic part, realized that either Cassandra was completely clueless about where they were or she was lying; either way, it meant that they had a minimal chance of getting out.

Once the eclipse had passed and the house had quieted down, Cassandra stepped downstairs after a shower and changing in fresh clothes that she found in one of the guest rooms of the home she was in. It was more a mansion than a home; a very antiquated mansion at that. No one was around, and for a moment, she feared that the last few hours of her repetitive life had been nothing more than a hallucination, but she walked down the hallways of the house, calling out Bonnie and Damon's name, waiting for them to answer.

"Bonnie? Damon?" she called aloud. She came to a room at the end of the hallway and saw Damon inside, though he didn't answer her. She stepped inside reluctantly, not afraid of the vampire but more weary of him than anything. He was a very suspicious person in general, regardless of the species.

"Well," Damon began with a heavy sigh. She could see him with his back turned to her, holding a camera to his face and capturing the glowing embers of the fire behind him. "I am officially in hell. My own, personal hell..."

She could hear the hesitation in Damon's voice as he trailed off, but then, he realized that there was someone in his presence. Damon turned around, shutting the camera off instantly, and he looked at Cassandra with angered eyes.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Damon snapped at her. Cassandra stepped forward and shook her head.

"I don't know what makes you think that this place is your hell, Damon, but I can assure you, it's not."

Damon stared at her, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "I thought you didn't know what this place is."

Cassandra gulped down the lie in her throat. "I-I don't." He looked at her skeptically, and so she recovered. "But I do know that if it were your hell, I wouldn't be here."

Damon set the camera down on the coffee table in front of him and turned back at her with hard eyes, ignoring her statement before. "I know you know what this place is. Bonnie might believe you or...or think that you'll tell us when you're ready but I don't have time, okay? I don't believe you. So just spill it already."

She could see the desperate eyes Damon laid on her, as if he was dying standing where he was. There was something he wasn't telling her, she realized, and though it made complete sense that he wouldn't want to spill his entire life story to her after only a day with her, she found it annoying that she didn't know what it was. But regardless, nothing—not even the reason for his despair—would make her tell him what this place was. In fact, it would do quite the opposite. If his sorrow ran so strong, he would act the same way as Kai would...and then everyone would be dead.

Cassandra mustered an apologetic smile. "The less you know, the better."

Damon stared at her in disbelief, and without saying another word, he scoffed and stormed out of the study, grabbing the video camera as he did. She was left to watch him leave and she sighed heavily, the secrets building inside of her. She was never good at keeping secrets, but this one would have to be kept. Kai's existence couldn't be known. Everything was changing, coming to a close so fast. The only thing she could do is stop them from getting to the truth before Kai comes and ruins it all.

Realizing she hadn't had anything to eat since the Jersey bagel she'd managed to scoff down in the midst of her book store reading before Kai came and shattered her world with the theories he had, Cassandra walked around for a while until she found the kitchen. When she walked inside, desperate for anything that was edible, she was startled by Bonnie, who was sitting on the counter chewing on a piece of licorice. Cassandra jumped at the start, and Bonnie looked up at her with a soft laugh.

"Sorry."

Cassandra swallowed back the fright and walked to the fridge. "Jesus. I haven't been scared like that in a really long time."

Bonnie watched as Cassandra pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge, along with some cheese that was in one of the fridge drawers. After grabbing the bread on the counter and hunting the cabinets for a plate, she began to make a sandwich for herself when Bonnie spoke to her, a curious tone in her voice.

"How did you do it?" Bonnie asked. Cassandra looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Alone...for all this time. I mean, you seem pretty normal. You would think being alone for...however long you've been here, you'd be pretty closed off."

Cassandra shrugged. "I mean, I had the entire world in my hands." She put a few slices of cheese between the layers of bread and sandwiched them together. "I traveled for a bit. I read...a _lot." _

"Read?"

"Like books?" Cassandra smiled and looked up at the Bennett Witch. "You know, those things with hard covers? They have words on pages?"

Bonnie scowled. "Between you and Damon, I'm going to die from sarcasm poisoning." Cassandra couldn't help but laugh, and Bonnie watched her as she put the cheese back in the fridge and the bread where it was before. Still chewing on the licorice in her mouth, Bonnie inhaled sharply. "You know, Damon just needs some time to process things. He really wants to get out of here."

"We all do." Cassandra bit into the sandwich and, making sure she didn't chew with her mouth full, knotted her eyebrows at Bonnie. "That's no excuse to tie someone up to a chair. I mean, like I said, I won't hold it against either of you, but he's pretty intense."

Bonnie shrugged hesitantly. "He...has people that he needs to get back to. His brother, for starters. And then there's Elena."

"Elena?"

"His girlfriend."

Cassandra chewed the sandwich in her mouth and swallowed it down cautiously before biting back a smile. "Ah. It's always about the girl."

Bonnie scoffed. "Always."

* * *

**It was a little shorter than I'd hoped but thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**alyssadavis25: **Thank you! More Cass and Damon coming sooner than you might think. Hope the second chapter was good too!

**Charmaine: **It can be a Bonkai story. I mean I haven't really decided on the official pairing but I don't see why not. Especially since Bamon won't really exist in this story (romance wise). Thank you!

**Alleina Parker-Salvatore: **Thank you! There may be Bonkai in the future. I haven't really decided yet but like I said, I don't see why not :)

**klandgraf2007: **Thank you! I'm excited to see where it goes too this is one of those stories that I kind of don't know where it's going to take me so I'm really excited about it.

**LovelyFandomLover: **Of course :) Thanks! Hopefully this chapter was good too.


	3. I Hear That's What Hell Sounds Like

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**I Hear That's What Hell Sounds Like**

xxx

_One Month Later_

"Here you go," Damon chimed as he set a plate of pancakes down in front of Bonnie as the ex-witch didn't bother to look up from her newspaper as she attempted the crossword puzzle in the daily paper. Cassandra sat across from Bonnie, picking at the plate of bacon she had made for breakfast before Damon began his pancake-making for the thirtieth day in a row. Bonnie frowned at the paper.

"I can't get twenty-seven across." She looked up at Cassandra beside her at the table as Damon took a can of whipped cream and shook it up. Cassandra chewed on the bacon in her mouth and smiled at Bonnie secretly. But Bonnie realized the small smirk on Cassandra's face, and she lowered the paper skeptically. "You know the answer, don't you?"

Cassandra chewed on her bacon and didn't respond, but her face said it all. She always had been a bad liar.

Bonnie slammed the paper down on the table. "Cassandra! I've been working at this thing for three weeks! You have to tell me what twenty-seven across is!"

Cassandra shook her head. "I'm not telling. Crosswords are meant to stimulate the mind. If I told you, your mind would not be stimulated."

"But—" As Damon licked the whipped cream off of his fingers, Bonnie looked down at her pancakes and saw the cream shaped into a smiling face, complete with a set of vampire fangs. Temporarily, Bonnie forgot about what Cassandra knew that she didn't and she frowned up at Damon. "What the hell is this?"

"Your breakfast." He shrugged and turned back to the center island to finish off his pancakes. "You're welcome."

Bonnie's lips twitched angrily. "Why is the whipped cream shaped to look like a vampire, Damon?"

"Because it's funny."

"No, it's not!" She took her fork and swirled the whipped cream around so that there was no longer the look of a demon on her pancake. "It's like a sick joke that's supposed to remind me that I'm stuck in here with _you. _I'd prefer that my breakfast be the one thing that's not a constant reminder of that."

Damon threw up his hands. "I'm the one who makes the pancakes! It's automatically a constant reminder!"

"Name one person who wants vampire fangs on their food!"

Cassandra chuckled as she watched Bonnie and Damon go back and forth at it. Interrupting with her laughter, she looked at Bonnie with a grin. "Wow. You really hate vampires so much that you feel the need to get so worked up over some whipped cream?"

"It's different for you." Bonnie shoved her fork into the pancake and cut into it. "You didn't have to deal with vampires before you got put in this place. I did. However bad you think Damon is...triple it. Then you'll only have half the feeling I have towards vampires."

Almost angrily, Bonnie shoveled a piece of pancake in her mouth and swallowed it down. Cassandra couldn't help but chuckle further as she finished the last bite of her bacon and watched as Damon came over to the table and sat down with his own plate of pancakes. Cassandra's smile faded as she realized he'd turned off the griddle and started eating his own meal without so much as thinking about her breakfast. Looking at Damon across the table from where she and Bonnie were sitting, she scoffed.

"Where's my breakfast?" she asked. Damon didn't skip a beat before his reply.

"I didn't make it." He ate a piece from his pancakes and watched as Cassandra stared at him in disbelief. Damon shrugged. "You made yourself bacon, didn't you?"

"For everyone! I made bacon for everyone! You only made Bonnie pancakes." She had such an offended look on her face, but Damon brushed past it as if it were nothing...because, to him, it was nothing. He smiled at her bitterly.

"Bonnie doesn't lie to me," the vampire shot. Cassandra's frown only grew and Bonnie stared at Damon incredulously at his blunt statement. The room was silent for a while with only the sound of Damon's metal fork and knife scraping against the plate as he cut into his pancakes. Bonnie looked beside her and noticed the hurt, exasperated look from Cassandra and leaned over to her.

"They're not even that good anyways," she hissed under her breath. Cassandra, realizing the gesture, gave Bonnie a slight smile as Damon irritatedly looked up at Bonnie, displeased with her generosity. Bonnie gave him a stern look back, and noticing the intense stares from both the witch and the vampire in her company, Cassandra realized that she didn't feel up to sticking around for breakfast if it would cause issues. Three weeks with Bonnie and Damon and she still felt like Damon was watching her every move, waiting for her to mess up so he could catch her in the act and call her out on it. At the rate he was going, he wouldn't trust her until they'd spent double the amount of time she'd already spent in their hell.

"Excuse me," Cassandra murmured at them and rose from the table, abruptly leaving the pair to themselves. Bonnie tried to stop Cassandra from going, but Cassandra was already out the door before she could even start to say her name. When she was gone, Bonnie witnessed Damon just shovel another bite into his mouth as if he'd never caused an issue in the first place. But though Damon acted oblivious, he could see the look of disdain that the Bennett witch gave him. When it grew too much to bear, Damon groaned and set his fork down on the plate with a loud clanking noise.

"What do you want me to do, Bonnie? It's been three weeks and she hasn't said anything," he defended himself. Bonnie swallowed another bite of her breakfast.

"Have you ever thought of the possibility that she actually doesn't have anything to tell?"

"No." Bonnie sighed disappointedly, causing Damon to roll his eyes. "Come on, Bon-Bon. She's been locked in this place for God knows how long, she has to know _something. _And I'm not going to sit here and cook her breakfast when I know that she's hiding something from us that could get us out of this place."

Bonnie reached over and grabbed the paper she'd set down to continue her crossword as she told him pointedly, "Maybe if you'd be a little nicer to her, she'd be a little more inclined to tell us something, hmm?"

After that, Bonnie said nothing. She worked on her crossword quietly but eyed Damon as she watched the words process through his brain as he finished up his crappy homemade breakfast.

xxx

After Damon's comment at the table at breakfast, Cassandra decided that she'd rather be alone than in the Salvatore house with Damon's negative attitude and Bonnie's mediation. She ended up grabbing a bottle of Jack Daniels from the Mystic Grill and lying down in the park on a bench. It was something she did when she wanted to take a few moments to think to herself, not that she hadn't already achieved twenty entire years alone with her thoughts.

So there she was, lying on a park bench with her eyes closed, a bottle of jack in her hand, the sun heating up her lids and lighting her vision from behind them, when there was a dark spot that alerted her. When Cassandra had managed to open her eyes, they immediately widened at the sight above her.

As Cassandra jolted upright, she could hear the distinct voice beside her, "Miss me, Cassie?"

"Kai..." Cassandra muttered under her breath as she stiffened while Kai sat beside her on the bench. The brunette turned and looked around her, making sure that Bonnie and Damon were nowhere in sight. "W-What the hell are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"It wasn't all that hard." Kai shrugged at her as he looked elsewhere to explain his steps. "See, I knew that you had to have some way of finding our new friends which...made me realize that you had magic stashed away somewhere. I looked up and down the Eastern seaboard until I finally found a little book in the farthest corner of the Library of Congress hollowed out." Cassandra swallowed thickly as she felt Kai's eyes on her. Though it wasn't in her best interest, she matched his gaze and tried not to show her fear. "You had magic this whole time. Emergency magic. It's very clever, Cassie. You've always been clever."

Cassandra drew in a deep breath. "And after you found the magic?"

Kai scoffed. "You should've known better than to think that once your magic was released, I wouldn't be able to track it. Your magic is the strongest in our coven, Cass! So naïve." He laughed.

She couldn't help the small, bitter laugh out of her lips. "I can't be that naïve, Malachai. It took you twenty years to be able to find only one-sixteenth of my magic that you weren't even able to use."

"Whatever." He brushed it off. "The point is, I've been here for a week now and I know exactly what I'm dealing with. That witch, she's a Bennett. Now, she might not be able to practice, but I'm sure that if we get her going we could probably—"

Cassandra jumped up from her seat on the park bench. "Stay away from Bonnie."

Kai looked up at his baby sister, appeased at the stern look on her face. He leaned back praisingly and began, "Do you remember the first few weeks we were here and I kept trying to kill you?" He chuckled in nostalgia. "And then...then, you killed _me _in self-defense and when I woke back up I found you a sobbing mess of tears! For your own, 'psychopathic brother' as you like to put it. Look at you now, Cassie! You killed me without blinking back in Jersey and now you're warning me? Twenty years in this hell really did a number on you."

"Shut up!" Cassandra snapped, her fist clenching hard. Kai looked up at her, all the amusement drained out of her face as she stared down at him with serious threatening eyes. With a deep breath, she began. "You lay a hand on either one of them, Kai, and I won't hesitate to kill you this time. You said it yourself, I killed you without blinking back in Jersey and I'll do it again."

Kai gave her a sour smile. "I'll just come back."

"So I'll kill you again. I'll kill you over and over and over and over again and when I've finally decided that I'm done killing you, I'll lock you in a cellar and starve you."

He practically sang, "I'll get out, Cass. I'll always get out."

She nodded. "Yeah, and when you do, I'll have destroyed the only thing that can get you out of here. I'll destroy it for good."

At this, Kai's lips immediately turned down and she watched as the look of murder flooded his features. She took a half-step back as Kai rose from his place on the park bench with a stalking look in his eyes, his pupils hardened as he stared at her with nothing but blood on his mind. Kai raised a deep sigh through his nose and watched as his sister fought the urge to tremble and did a hell of a job at maintaining her terror.

"You wouldn't dare," Kai growled. "If you destroy the Ascendant, we're stuck in here for good. Even your little friends."

"I'm willing to sacrifice whoever it takes so that you don't get out," she replied coldly. And in that moment, Kai realized she wasn't delivering an empty threat. She would do it, and he knew she would. "So you're going to leave town and keep Bonnie and Damon out of this or you'll never have a chance to get out. Ever. Do I make myself clear, Kai?"

She watched as Kai gritted his teeth angrily and seethed before her. She knew he wouldn't hesitate to kill her as he'd done so many times before, and in that moment, she was waiting for him to do his worst. But instead, he just backed away from her and gave Cassandra a very tight, cold-blooded smile.

"I'll see you around, Cassie."

But even as he left, she knew it wasn't over. Kai would be back, with a new and improved plan, no less. And when he was, she'd have to prepared. But she couldn't worry about it then; he would be back, but not for a while. Kai was strategic, he liked to plan his moves and execute them only when the time was right. She had a while before he struck again, and when he did, she had to make sure he didn't succeed in any of his plans. Truth was, she could destroy the Ascendant any time she wanted—it was probably a good idea to do so. But a part of her didn't want to give up that hope that she could get around taking Kai with the help of her new friends.

Weary of being out in the open, Cassandra returned back to the boarding house after her run-in with Kai in the park. By the time she arrived, the eclipse was passing in the sky. The moment she walked in the door, she noticed Damon sitting in the parlor pouring a glass of bourbon with a sour expression on his face. If she were being honest, Cassandra dreaded the moment alone with Damon, but she didn't want to be as rude to him as he was to her. So without fail, she joined him in the parlor with a sigh.

"Where's Bonnie?" Cassandra asked. Damon shrugged.

"Out. Didn't say where, sort of like you." Without looking up, he added, "Where'd you go?"

"Park," she replied simply. Damon nodded slowly and Cassandra observed him practically ignoring her, so she decided that it wasn't worth it to small-talk with Damon. She didn't need to small-talk with him; she'd been in the same house dreading every single day the same way as he had for three whole weeks. "All right, well I'm gonna head upstairs."

A sane person would think that, by now, they'd know everything there was to know about each other. All she knew about him was what Bonnie told her—Damon Salvatore had a brother, Stefan Salvatore, whom he hadn't been close to until recently. They'd fallen in love with the same girl in 1864, gotten turned into vampires, and lived a century mourning her until they finally met Elena Gilbert, the carbon copy of their previous love. Elena dated Stefan first, then she turned into a vampire and fell in love with Damon. But there was nothing else; she didn't know his birthday, didn't know his exact age, didn't know his family, his likes, his dislikes...meanwhile, she'd learned so much about Bonnie it was nearly frightening. She almost felt bad she couldn't tell Bonnie the truth about herself, but it just wasn't safe.

"Wait." As Cassandra moved for the stairs to go up to the guest room she'd been sleeping in, she heard Damon call her back. She turned around, slightly suspicious, and watched as Damon stared at her with clear curiosity for a few moments before finally beginning again, softer this time. "Come with me."

"Damon—" But she couldn't protest, because he'd already walked away without her. With a sigh, Cassandra followed him into the kitchen, where she walked through the threshold just as Damon licked something off of his finger in the way that he had earlier. Curious, Cassandra walked perpendicular to where Damon was standing at the center isle and witnessed him slide a plate over to her. She looked down to find a stack of pancakes with a vampire face made from whipped cream.

"Order up," Damon told her with a rare smile. She looked up at him, absolutely stunned. Cassandra realized too late that she had taken too long to move, and therefore, Damon dropped his smile into a frown. "What the hell are you waiting for? You want me to feed it to you, too?"

"What is this?" she asked, looking down at the pancakes and up at him again. He rolled his eyes.

"I've been informed that I should be kinder to you." Cassandra couldn't help the small smile that broke through her lips at the way he said the statement. Damon didn't catch the small hint of a grin as he continued, "And this is as nice as I'll get. Eat them before they get cold."

Cassandra frowned. "Okay, okay. You don't have to be such a dick about it." Damon smiled at her and watched as Cassandra took the fork on her plate and tore off a piece from the stack with a heap of whipped cream from the vampire face's fangs and fit it into her mouth. The taste coated her tongue as she forced herself to swallow the god-awful pancake, but she didn't bother hiding her disgust from Damon like Bonnie had. As Cassandra choked down the bit of pancake, she tossed her fork on the plate and shuddered. "Oh my God! That's terrible! Disgusting! No!"

Damon scowled. "You don't have to be such a dick about it."

"Ugh." Shuddering again, Cassandra turned to the fridge and hurriedly grabbed a bottle of water, where she chugged it fast to cleanse her palate of the cold, batter-like pancakes. Damon watched her in disbelief as she wiped her mouth free of the water and shivered yet again. "Maybe you not making me pancakes was a blessing."

He shook his head at her. "This is the thanks I get? You're insulting my cooking skills?"

"On what planet do you get thanked for giving someone salmonella?" Damon laughed at her as Cassandra leaned over the center isle and, through her own soft laughs, drank her water again. Once the laughter between them died down, things were very quiet between the two. It was no secret that Damon didn't trust her, and she wasn't too fond of him, either, but she was willing to make it work; something that he wasn't very keen on. But in an attempt for a truce, Cassandra decided to extend an olive branch. "All right. You really want a 'thank you'?"

He shrugged. "That's normally what you get when you cook someone breakfast."

She scoffed. "I'm not thanking you for those disgusting pancakes. No. But I will take you somewhere I like to go, if you're up for it." Damon looked at her hesitantly, and Cassandra eyed him as he internally debated the trustworthiness of her offer. "Come on, Damon. You've been moping around this house for three weeks. I promise I can take your mind off of things for a little while...at the very least."

A few long moments passed before Damon finally nodded, slowly but surely. "All right. Why the hell not?"

xxx

"A water tower?" Damon asked as he stared up at the Mystic Falls water tower that was glowing in the dim light of the sunset. Cassandra nodded, and he looked from the globe-shaped structure over to her, where her eyes followed the same pattern. "This is your special pick-me-up?"

"I used to be afraid of heights," she admitted. With a shrug, she added, "I still am, I just find it easier to be up there. It's ironic, but it's my safe place. Any water tower in the entire country."

"Water towers? Really?" Damon repeated, almost disgusted.

"Just quit complaining and follow me." She moved forwards the ladder of the tower and climbed the rusty steps that were sturdy enough to hold her up but still rusted enough to be able to short out. But she made it safely to the top of the water tower and stood up at the top, where she flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked down to see Damon as he climbed. Instead, she saw nothing below her, and for a moment, she thought that Damon might've ditched her. Instead, she caught sight out of the corner of her eye and watched as Damon walked forward and sat down on the edge of the circle with a small smile on his face. Her eyes widened. "How did you...?"

"Vampire, remember?" he reminded her as she came over and sat beside him. Cassandra sighed.

"Right. I keep forgetting that part." He scoffed. "You just seem so...um, normal, I guess."

"That's because I am." Damon shrugged and caught her curious gaze. "I mean...other than the fact that I've lived over a century off of a steady diet of human blood, yeah. I'm pretty normal."

"I forgot what normal felt like," Cassandra murmured under her breath. Damon looked off at the sunlight as she continued, "I guess I've just been living here alone for so long I've kind of lost the feeling you get when you know if something's strange or if something's not."

"Alone..." Damon repeated, almost in disbelief, but he didn't say anything about it, though she honestly expected him to. But Damon refrained for the sake of doing what Bonnie said; getting her to trust him. "What do you do, then? It's got to get boring, living the same day over and over again."

"I read."

"Read?"

"Yeah."

"Read what?"

Cassandra took in a deep breath as she tried to remember all the books she read. She couldn't. It was impossible for her to recount every single one of the books she read unless she had a photographic memory, but she didn't. So she answered his questions with her favorites after clearing her tight throat. "Um...Dumas, Sun Tzu, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Homer...Shakespeare."

"Shakespeare?" Damon repeated, confused. She nodded and stared off at the bright sunset. "What, like 'Romeo and Juliet' and all that garbage?"

"I mean...not all of it is _garbage." _Cassandra scoffed. Right as she was about to go into further explanation, Damon groaned loudly, interrupting her as she tried to defend herself.

"Oh, come on!" he complained. "Just when I was starting to get used to you, I learn that you're into all that destiny crap that Shakespeare writes about! I mean, you've got to be smarter than to fall for that, right?"

"Look," Cassandra stopped him, talking over his voice. "'Romeo and Juliet' was terrible, okay? I know that. They knew each other for one day and then they decide to get married and then commit suicide...I mean...who does that?" Damon scoffed in agreement as she continued. "But the other things he wrote weren't terrible. The comedies, the tragedies. 'Othello', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Hamlet'..."

"'Hamlet'!" Damon chuckled. She turned to him in surprise.

"What, you didn't like 'Hamlet'?"

"'To be or not to be'..." Damon mocked, trying to contain his laughter. Cassandra laughed as well, but only at the particular way he chose to display the overdramatic mockery. "I just don't understand the hype about the guy. Poets are boring."

"Poets aren't boring," Cassandra countered. "They're..."

"Romantic," Damon finished for her as his blue eyes caught hers. "Right? Isn't that every girl's fantasy? To have a man who writes poems, gives her flowers and chocolates...?"

"I'm allergic to chocolate," she pointed out.

"Just the flowers, then?"

"Just the flowers." Damon grinned at her, and she smiled back at him as she realized the foolery he was making of a pretty serious conversation. He seemed to have a knack for it, turning every conversation into a light-hearted one. "And to be fair, that's not every girl's fantasy. It's certainly not mine."

Damon rolled his eyes. "So what's yours, then, Shakespeare?"

She didn't miss the added nickname at the end, but Cassandra didn't mind it. At least he was conversing with her rather than turning her away at every corner being as rude as any man, let alone a vampire, could possibly manage. For a moment, she thought about what he was asking, but finally, she just shrugged.

"I don't have one." He raised his eyebrows, surprised, but she just turned back to the sunset. "I don't know, it's odd, I guess. You'd think with all that time, I'd have imagined the perfect life for myself but I just...I don't. I never really had time to think about the perfect guy. Even before I got trapped in here, I'd never been in one place for more than a year at a time."

"Why?"

Cassandra laughed awkwardly and hung her head as she thought about it. "My coven back in the real world...once they realized that there was something different about me, I was forced to move from school to school. I had strong magic—stronger than any of them had ever felt. But every time I was around people, I would end up ruining it all because I couldn't control it. There were certain things that couldn't be explained and so I was shuffled around from place to place, mostly boarding schools so no one would be bothered. But if I didn't focus on controlling my magic, I would lose it. Doesn't leave a lot of time to think about a fantasy." She paused. "Though, that doesn't mean I haven't had my fair share of experiences."

"Should've lead with that." Cassandra laughed under her breath and shook her head while pinching the bridge of her nose in embarrassment. "So how'd you end up here, then?"

She looked up at the sun and sighed. "I told you, I don't remember. All I remember is coming home to my family as exams came to a close the last year of boarding school when I was trapped in here. I wish I could be more help, but I just can't be."

Lies, lies, and more lies. When would they end?

Damon saw right through her, and she knew he didn't believe her, but she said nothing. With a sigh, Damon got up from his position on the edge of the water tower and looked down at her as she looked up at him, squinting from the setting sun. He looked down at the ground. "I think it's time to go, then."

"Bonnie's probably getting back to the boarding house," Cassandra agreed. Damon stood up and Cassandra followed suit, but as she walked over to the ladder with white knuckles, a telltale sign as she looked down with a hard swallow and moved to turn around so she could climb down, Damon spoke again.

"You really are afraid of heights, aren't you?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. She looked at him with oblivious eyes.

"Yeah. I already said that, didn't I?"

"You ever think you'll get over that fear?" Damon prompted suspiciously. She looked around, caught and confused at what he was asking. It was such a strange question.

"Um...I mean, I don't—"

Before she could finish her sentence, she felt herself fall off of the water tower after being shoved, and in the next moment, she felt weightless. Cassandra shut her eyes tight as she braced for hard impact with the ground and feared the end, which she knew wouldn't technically be the 'end' but rather death for an about an hour, but just as she realized the weightless feeling had ceased and that she was still conscious, she opened her eyes. The second her lids lifted, she could see the sadistic smirk on Damon's face as he studied her features.

"Your face was priceless," he commented as he set her down. Cassandra shoved him away from her with an offended scoff.

"You're such an ass!" she shouted at him, but she couldn't help the small, adrenaline-induced laugh that escaped her lips involuntarily. Damon saw it, and he couldn't take her insult seriously. With a smile still spread on his lips, he shrugged harmlessly.

"Come on, Cass. I guarantee you're not afraid of heights now." She was silent, and so he prompted, "Are you?"

She took a long time to respond, but at last, she made a huff and brushed past him, though she knew that—however painful it was to admit—he was right.

xxx

_One Month Later_

Every day it was the same. Damon was behind the center island cooking pancakes while Bonnie and Cassandra were at the table. Things had been a lot better since Damon and Cassandra's night at the water tower, and the only two people who were really fighting were Bonnie and Damon, but that was routine as usual. It hadn't escalated to a terrible point; that was until one day, where Bonnie was sitting at the table with Cassandra per usual and Damon was cooking pancakes.

"What's a seven letter word for 'kill me now'?" Bonnie grumbled as she twirled a pencil on her finger and shut her eyes so tight Cassandra was afraid she would hurt something. Cassandra shrugged and grabbed a strawberry on the table as Damon responded bitterly.

"That joke got old six weeks ago."

"And so did this crossword puzzle," Bonnie replied while Damon applied the whipped cream on her pancakes in circular motion instead of his vampire stunt that he'd tried to pull over and over again. "Every day for two months, I've done this stupid thing and I still can't figure out twenty-seven across! 'An old tongue-twister Eddie turned Top 40'?"

Cassandra scoffed at her. "That's easy." Bonnie gave her an irritated stare because she knew that Cassandra wouldn't tell her. For two months she'd been asking and for two months, Cassandra'd been denying. "I mean, I guess it makes sense you wouldn't know, though. You were...what, a toddler in 1994?"

Before Bonnie could reply, Damon set Bonnie's plate of pancakes in front of her and set another in front of Cass. Suddenly, Bonnie took the pencil in her hand and stabbed the pancakes angrily. "And I hate pancakes!"

"Whoa!" Damon objected as he leaned close to Bonnie's ear. "Don't take it out on the pancakes. Those pancakes, like myself, are waiting for you to be witchy to get us the hell out of here!"

As Damon moved back to his position at the griddle, Bonnie stood up irately. "You know I've been trying!"

"And failing," he added.

"Damon, stop taking it out on Bonnie," Cassandra reprimanded, trying to mediate their argument with the truth she shielded from them. "She's doing the best she can."

"Further evidence we're in hell." He looked between the two of them and, though maintaining a light-hearted outlook, said the words with a venomous edge. "Not only am I stuck with Bonnie, I'm stuck with the useless version of Bonnie. And on top of all that, I have a house guest who has been sleeping in my house, eating my food, and sharing my bourbon when she's flat out lying to me!"

"I thought we were past this." Cassandra stood up from the table, the bad mood from Bonnie spreading to her. "It's been two goddamn months, Damon! If I knew something, don't you think I would've told you by now?!"

"If I had a dollar for every time someone surprised me," Damon mumbled. The room fell silent for a moment before Bonnie interrupted the argument, opening her mouth to chime in when she changed courses and looked around the kitchen with a confounded look on her face.

"Did you hear that?" she asked quietly. Behind her, Damon threw up his hands.

"What would I have heard, Bonnie? We're the only three people here, according to her," he said, pointing out Cassandra behind her. The two ex-witches could see Damon's face as he heated up, the read spreading across his cheeks as he yelled, "We were the only two people when we got here, then she came stumbling along, and so we're the only three people here now!"

"Well, I swear I heard something!" Bonnie shouted at him.

Damon's pessimistic voice could not be missed. "Maybe it's the sound of existential _despair_. I hear that's what hell sounds like."

"You know what? You think we're trapped in _your _hell? I have to spend every day on repeat with the person I like least on this Earth! Maybe we're trapped in mine!"

With that said, Bonnie turned around and grabbed her bear angrily before storming out of the kitchen. Damon watched after her with clear exhaustion and still retaining the anger he had before. When he turned back to the kitchen, he saw Cassandra just staring after Bonnie as well, but then she moved her eyes to him. He looked at her in disdain, the untrustworthy feeling flooding back into him as he threw down the spatula in his hand and walked the way opposite that Bonnie left, tired of being around anyone; let alone a witch he didn't trust. Cassandra found herself all alone in the Salvatore kitchen, and with a sigh, she sat back down at her seat and ended up pushing the pancakes to the side so she could lay her head on the table.

xxx

The three avoided each other for most of the day, still heated over the discussion that took place in the morning. Some days were like this; there were occurrences when Bonnie and Damon got so furious at each other that they ended up spending a night a part before finally stitching things up in the morning. Though their idea of an apology was to forget it never happened. However, Cassandra was not only a part of the conversation earlier in the morning, but she was also offended by it. However, she decided that she was tired of Damon liking her one minute and hating her the next. If it weren't for Bonnie, she would've left the day after she was taken by him.

Cassandra unintentionally found Damon down in the parlor as she walked back from her expedition at the water tower to clear her head again, this time without Damon. As she walked back into the living room, she saw Damon standing over the fireplace with a glass of bourbon in his hand looking as if he'd been run over by a train, the way he was moping. Cassandra sighed at him.

"You know, I think I read somewhere that's bad to stare at a fire for excessive amounts of time." No answer, so she continued, "I think it has something to do with damaging your eyes."

"I'm not in the mood to be 'fixed' today, Cassandra," Damon muttered. "Go try to see if your water tower tactics will work on Bonnie."

"I didn't take you to the water tower to fix you," she told him, slightly insulted. "I took you to the water tower because I wanted to get to know you. Didn't really work all that well because all you wanted to do was talk about me."

Damon scoffed. "Like I could even get the truth out of you for once."

"You know, you're really pissing me off," she growled. Damon, with his eyebrows nodded, grabbed his bourbon glass from the mantle and turned around at her to watch as Cassandra grimaced at him. "I've done nothing but cooperate with you and Bonnie. I've done nothing but prove to both of you that I can be trusted. And yet, here you are. You'll never trust me until I tell you some magical way to get out, will you?"

"No," Damon answered truthfully. "I won't. Because I know you're hiding something and I'll figure out what it is."

"You want to know what I'm hiding?" She walked forward angrily and shoved him back. He stumbled, but didn't counter. "You think that this is your personal hell, huh? Bonnie thinks it's hers, too. Newsflash, you asshole! I've been here for twenty years longer than the two of you! I have spent twenty years letting my brain _rot _in this place because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time! I've been trapped in here reliving the same day that I lost my life, that I lost my entire future! You think this is your hell? It's not! If it's anyone's hell, it's—"

She didn't know what happened. One minute, she'd been yelling, and the next, Damon's bourbon glass shattered all over the floor and as alcohol pooled at their feet, Damon kissed her with the blackest parts of him. Two months he'd been trapped on repeat, and every day for two months, all he thought about was Elena. He needed to feel better for the sake of himself, and Cassandra...well, she didn't know what she was doing if she were being blunt. Damon was the one who kissed her darkly. She didn't like it; she hated it, in fact. And though she could've stopped him as she wanted to, there was a dark part within her, too. As Damon's darkest parts eclipsed his judgement, so did hers.

They were so alone, so lost, so hurt. And that made it all the easier to forget the weight on their shoulders.

When it was over, the only sound to be heard was the fire that was crackling beside them, almost taunting them with the one noise that eclipsed the deadly silence. Damon ran a hand through his hair and Cassandra lifted herself from the floor and grabbed her dress from beside her. She slipped it over her head quickly and tossed the blanket that had been covering them over to the side as she stood from the ground and moved to walk away. As she did, she heard Damon speak softly behind her.

"Cass," he called her back, propping himself up on his elbows. Instead of turning to him, she just stopped and tried to hold her tears back. Her breathing was quick, but she took deep breaths to get rid of the panicking feeling she could feel come over herself. Her head bowed as she felt a tear escape down her cheek and Damon, though he wasn't exactly sure that she was crying, knew there was a very good possibility. "We should—"

"Forget it," Cassandra told him quietly. Damon stared at her from behind, her dark hair moving as she looked over her shoulder slightly, not enough to expose her face. She closed her eyes and felt another salted tear slip down her face. "We should forget it. This didn't happen."

"Cassandra—"

"It didn't happen, okay?"

She ran out of the parlor as if she were a bat straight out of hell, heading right for the door and leaving before Damon could stop her.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**alyssadavis25: **He definitely doesn't trust her and that won't really help when Kai ends up revealing himself as he does in the show because Kai ruins everything. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed the update!

**PrincessMagic: **Thanks!

**LovelyFandomLover: **Oh my God she definitely is. Bonnie won't have her back though. At least, not at first, but both Damon and Bonnie will understand why she did what she did when they learn about who Kai is and everything. She didn't really do anything, it was more of an accident but more about that will be revealed once she gets back to the real world. Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**jordanjanellejoy: **I'll see what I can do :) Here's the update!

**Guest: **She didn't necessarily 'do' anything, it was more of an accident but later she'll find out that no one really cared about it because of her own magic. In this chapter, it was mentioned in passing...she has the strongest magic in her coven that can rarely be controlled so when she gets back and realizes that none of her own family members have ever even attempted to get her out she'll learn that they didn't because they thought it was best she stay in there, accident or not.

**starsomerville: **I love them too. Though they really screwed it up in this chapter. I don't like Elena, either, trust me.

**Guest101: **Thank you! This is only the beginning of their relationship...this is basically what sets it all in motion so we'll definitely be seeing a lot more development between Cass and Damon. Bonnie and Cass's friendship will be fun to explore though in the future. Here's the update! Hope you enjoyed it.

**RHatch89: **Thank you :)

**OLICITY-of-All-Kind-Lover: **I hope this chapter was good enough for you! They won't really be interacting as much as they did in this chapter for a long while just because everything that happened in this chapter sets their relationship up for improvement along the way. She...sort of will tell them about Kai. It's going to be interesting. Thanks for reviewing!


	4. I'm a Psycho, Not a Pedo

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**I'm a Psycho, Not a Pedo**

xxx

"Damn it!" Cassandra cursed at her failed attempt to flip the pancake in the griddle before her. She stood in the Salvatore kitchen early in the morning the day after what happened with Damon on the previous night. Bonnie was already sitting at the table determined to finish her crossword, but Damon didn't usually wake up for another hour. Cassandra thought she had time to make her pancake breakfast before she skipped out on her friends and avoided Damon for the rest of the day. Perhaps she'd go to a local bookstore; maybe she'd tour the town again. She didn't know what activities she'd do, but all she knew was that she wouldn't be coming home until she was sure that Damon wasn't anywhere near her.

Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out so well. Of course, who would expect it to, anyways?

"Morning Bonnie," Damon started as he walked into the kitchen, sounding as chipper as ever. While Bonnie distractedly waved her pencil in the air to greet him, Damon slowed as he saw Cassandra at the stove, painstakingly avoiding his eyes with every ounce of her being. Rolling up the sleeves of his flannel shirt and clearing his throat, Damon came up to the center island and muttered a greeting. "Cassandra...I thought you'd be sleeping."

"Likewise," she grumbled.

"I can't even look up the answer if I wanted to!" Bonnie exclaimed as she put her head down on the table defeatedly. "We're in freaking 1994! Google doesn't exist! This is impossible!"

"Why are you making pancakes?" Damon asked Cass as she turned and grabbed a plate from the cabinet behind her. "Pancakes are my thing."

"Well, I wanted to make them this time," she explained, her voice barely a murmur. If Damon wasn't a vampire, he would've asked her to repeat herself. "Besides, you don't own pancakes. Did you invent pancakes? No. I believe that the Romans invented pancakes, thank you very much."

She attempted to flip the pancake again, but this time, instead of the batter going everywhere, the pancake broke apart right in the pan. Cassandra let out a frustrated breath, but contained herself beside Damon as she avoided his gaze and dumped the remnants of the pancake in the trash and moved for the batter to start again. Damon sighed.

"Cass, let me do it," he offered.

"I've got it." With a blank expression on her face, she poured a cup of batter into the pan into the shape of a circle and grabbed the spatula beside her as she waited intently for her breakfast. Damon's eyes were fixed on her face, but she didn't move an inch. He shifted uncomfortably and reached for the spatula in her hand.

"Cassandra, it's fine, I'll..."

"Don't...don't...don't touch me!" After two soft protests, she exploded the outburst in a single breath and jumped back to the other end of the center island. The objection was so loud, so powerful, that Bonnie lifted her head from her crossword puzzle and looked back at Cassandra with deeply concerned features. Cassandra looked from Damon's somewhat displeased, somewhat confused expression to Bonnie's utterly shocked face until she finally had enough, threw the spatula down, and ran out of the kitchen without a word.

When she was gone, Bonnie turned back at Damon, more angry than confused. "What the hell did you do to her, Damon?"

"Nothing," he defended himself, and with a scoff, Bonnie walked out on him just like Cassandra had; though she was more determined than she was frightened. When both women in the house were gone, Damon stared at the doorway for a while before he pressed his hands up against the counter of the center isle and took a deep breath, trying to forget about what happened.

xxx

Cassandra had skipped out on the boarding house before Bonnie was able to come after her. She wasn't exactly sure what she was upset about or what had even happened earlier in the morning. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was what they did and, though none of it was generally considered "bad", she felt like it had been. He hadn't taken her against her will or physically harmed her to any extent; if she were being honest, it was actually good. Better than good. But every time the thought and the images danced across her eyes, her stomach filled with an emptiness that resembled darkness. Before 1994, the sex she had was normal. Sometimes it would render her insatiable and other times it would just be uncomfortable, but regardless, it was normal. With Damon, it was different. It was dark. Bad. Not bad in the performance sense, but the situation was just purely...bad.

The one place she wanted to go was the one place she couldn't. The water tower had been compromised because, in her stupid attempt to earn the trust of someone who she never planned to speak to again, she had given up the location of her hiding place. Being that Cass was worried Damon would tell Bonnie where to find her or he would come and find her himself, as if it were likely, she ended up trying another route. She walked for a while until she ended up at Mystic Falls High, where she had ventured a while before and had honestly forgotten about it until she was walking around aimlessly in the town square. When she entered the new building, she wandered a while until she finally came to the auditorium where silence filled her ears as she traveled on stage. Cassandra sat down on the piano bench in front of the new state-of-the-art grand piano and observed all the empty seats in front of her. She was unaware of how much time had passed before she turned to the piano and lifted the cover hesitantly, eyeing the black and white keys tempting her to play.

Cass tested a few keys, hearing the notes in her head echo a few times before she finally positioned herself right so that she could play. She was a little rusty when it came to the musical art that she had taught herself when she was nine when she was at an all-girl's school in Michigan, but once she was able to get her hands to feel the keys again, she knew what to do.

The notes of Beethoven's "Für Elise" played from her fingers, the sharp sound of the keys filling the room. It started out slow at first as she tried to remember the way it felt and sounded to play the song, but at last, she picked up the pace and was able to hit every note with precision. She was so invested in the music that as she managed to get down to the song's finale, she barely heard the sound of clapping. It was only when the spotlight came on and was blaring right in her face that she had to stop cold.

Over the blinding light, Cass shielded her vision and stood up from the piano bench as she looked towards where the spotlight was coming from and the clapping was joining it. On the balcony, a figure stood above the light fixture, completely blacked out.

"Turn that off!" Cass snapped at whoever was pointing the light at her. The voice in the back of her mind was blaring loudly, but she hoped to God that it wasn't right. At that moment, and that moment only, she hoped it was just Damon playing a sick joke on her.

Unfortunately, again, things didn't go as planned.

"All right, all right!" Kai agreed as he stopped his slow-clapping and turned off the limelight. She could see him clearer since the light was out of her eyes, but the bright spot still remained even after the light had gone. However, she could clearly see the picture-perfect, sadistic grin on her face. "Well done, Cassie. I haven't heard you play like that since...what, twelve years? Don't go anywhere, I'll be right down."

"How did you know I would be here?" Cassandra shouted from the stage as she watched Kai walk down the stairs from the balcony and make his way towards her. She didn't move as she awaited his response while he walked up the stage to greet her.

"You're just too predictable!" Kai laughed. "I figured you'd be at the water tower, but when I remembered that was where you took that vampire the other day, I realized you'd probably want to make sure they couldn't find you."

Cassandra kept him at a distance. "You watched us?"

Kai made a disgusted sound. "I was at the water tower listening to your incredibly _boring _personal conversation last month. But last night...mmm, last night I decided to get the hell out of there before I saw something I didn't want to see. I'm a psycho, not a pedo."

She felt chills run down her spine knowing that Kai was watching her, but ignoring that wretched feeling, she crossed her arms and tried to remain cold for him to fear her. "I thought I told you to leave, Malachai. I thought I told you I'd kill you if you hurt anyone. It's not an empty threat."

He gave a hesitated shrug. "Eh. That's debatable. Point is, Cassie, I decided to heed your warning, but then...then I thought of something." She watched in alarm as Kai's eyes lit up just as a serial killer's eyes sparkled before the next victim's death. "I'll leave, I promise you that. I will go far, far away...and I will find the Ascendant that you stole from me all those years ago." Cass froze as he took a step closer to her, intending to intimidate her into being the first one to back away. "And you won't lift a finger to stop me. Wanna know why? Because if you want to stay here, keep up your pathetic little charade with these strangers, you can't leave. Damon and Bonnie will come after you. Hell, Damon doesn't believe you anyway. He has a right not to, though, but the principal still applies. You leave, you make them suspicious. All we have is time. Time for me to find the Ascendant and time for them to track you down. And if you try to stop me, I'll just kill you. Again, and again, and again."

The siblings were quiet for the longest time. Cassandra stared into Kai's hard, cold eyes and gulped back the terror in her throat. She was so afraid he was going to try something; he just had that look on his face that she knew all too well. The expression he made before he ripped someone to pieces, it was sitting right on his features. For a moment, things were still, but after that moment passed, Cassandra ran like a bat out of hell.

She ran right out of the auditorium, oblivious to Kai's long-winded sigh. "I hate it when they run. Running is just so tiring."

When Cassandra tried the doors to leave the school, it was useless. Kai'd locked them; of course he did. Because he knew it was going to happen. He cornered her, he told her his plan, and he was going to kill her so that he could get a head start on finding the Ascendant. She had fallen right into his trap and she knew it, too. She knew him too well and she didn't even know how to get herself out of the situation.

"There's no point in running, Cassie. So don't," Kai condescended as she heard him come out of the auditorium, bellowing through the hallway. She immediately dropped her hands from the front door and did the opposite of what he told her to do, running straight through the hallways, hoping she'd find an unlocked door. Every door she tried, however, was locked. The classrooms were open, but what good would they do?

She finally found herself running down the athletics hallway, hoping that there was an emergency exit somewhere that Kai forgot to lock. Knowing him, though, he didn't forget to lock anything. He was the mastermind at the art of killing, and this was merely practice for him. She shouldn't let it bother her so much, dying that is, but just because she could come back didn't mean she liked to die. Unfortunately, she ended up cornering herself into a dead-end hallway, and the first room she picked happened to be the pool. There was a bright red exit sign above the door across the room, but when she rushed up to it and tried to pry it open, it was locked as well. Before she could think of a Plan B, Kai came bursting through the door in the pool room and closed it behind him. They stood at odds from across the way, Cassandra heavily breathing from her attempt to escape and Kai breathing rapidly at his attempt to chase. He wore a deeply furious expression on his face.

"Really, Cass? You made me run like that?" His eyes darkened. "All I wanted was a head start. You always make things so hard for me."

She swallowed hard, but by the time Cassandra realized she had to do something in order to escape him, Kai had already marched over to her and grabbed her by her thick brown locks. He dragged her over to the pool, despite her protests to the childish hair-pulling, and quite literally threw her into the water. She landed so hard in the water that her side stung, and as she came up for air from the water, she could feel Kai's hand fisted through her hair again. He forced her down, keeping one hand on the concrete above the water to maintain his balance. Cassandra kicked from underneath the chlorine-filled water, but Kai's hand was too strong. The water quickly filled her lungs, and after minutes of kicking, Kai could feel it when Cassandra's body relaxed and it was clear that she was dead. He let go of her, watching as her body floated to the surface face-down, and as he stood up, he wiped his hand on his jacket and sighed.

"I'll see you around, Cassie," Kai muttered triumphantly before backing out, leaving his sister's dead body floating in the middle of the pool.

xxx

She ended up having to break through a window to get out of the high school at last. Kai didn't even have the courtesy to unlock the doors after he took off. She returned, half-heartedly, to the boarding house, somewhat damp from the pool. Cassandra didn't even bother to shower and change before she poured herself a drink and sat down on the couch in the parlor. She was sure she looked like a literal zombie, no doubt wearing the purple rings around her eyes and the stringy hair from her earlier death. Maybe she didn't look as graphic as it sounded, but she knew she was cold and most likely pale. She enjoyed a few minutes of peace and quiet before it was inevitably interrupted.

Damon entered the parlor, honestly not expecting Cassandra to have come home. She didn't lift her eyes from the ground, though he was sure she didn't see him. He contemplated it for a moment; he could step back, he could leave her to her bidding and not bother her. He could pretend like what happened didn't happen. That's what he wanted anyways. He didn't want to think about what happened either, but another part of him couldn't just let her sit there like that. She looked like a wreck. Her hair looked like it had been soaked in water and the water from her hair softly dripped on the couch. He was confused, but he noticed her slam down the rest of the alcohol in her cup relentlessly. With a sigh that she was sure to hear, Damon walked around the couch, grabbed the decanter full of bourbon, grabbed his own glass, and walked around her side of the couch. Cassandra didn't look up at him, but he poured her a drink anyways, which she didn't object to.

"Did you just decide to take a late-night swim all of a sudden?" he mumbled as he stepped over her and sat down on the couch while he poured his own glass of bourbon. She didn't reply, so when he sat down, he let out another sigh. "Is this how it's going to be for the rest of time? Are you just going to ignore me? Blow up at me for trying to salvage your failed and feeble attempt at making pancakes?" Damon drank his bourbon as the only sound that came beside him was Cassandra's even breathing. When he finished his sip, he began irritatedly, "Look, what happened between us _happened. _We can forget it, we can never talk about it again, but it still happened. So either talk about it or move on already."

He downed the rest of his bourbon as Cassandra paused for a moment. She processed everything he told her as he finished the alcohol in his glass with his head tipped back. Just as he came back up for air, Cassandra stood from the couch, still slightly damp and her body temperature slightly cold because of the water. Damon was unaware of what was happening for a moment as he set his glass down on the coffee table and reached forward for the decanter so that he could pour himself another dose. Just as he did, Cassandra put her own, half-full glass down on the table and pushed Damon's hand away from the decanter. He stared up at her in confusion and watched as her hand pushed him so that he was sitting with his back pressed against the couch. Damon's blue eyes searched her dark, lust-filled hazel ones as she shook her head at him.

"I don't want to talk," she whispered and climbed onto his lap while pressing her lips against his, capturing his mouth in a darkened kiss that resembled that of what he had done the night before. Maybe it was in Damon's best interest to tell her to stop. Maybe he should've told her just that; maybe he should've pushed her off and said that he couldn't do it. He had someone to think about who was waiting for him. The love of his life.

But the dark part inside of him, that bad part, just wanted to stop hurting. He wanted to let it go. So he took advantage of whatever hurt she was feeling, and increased the intensity of their kissing, forcing her mouth open so that he could drive their kiss. She allowed him to take the pain away, the stress she felt from the entirety of the last twenty plus years.

Kai...Elena...for a while, it was like they didn't exist. For a while, their pain was gone.

xxx

_Two Months Later_

"Damon!" Bonnie shouted as she and Cass stepped through the door leading into the Salvatore house. Cassandra closed the door behind her, despite the bags of groceries she held on her arms for dinner. "We're back! Thank God, because I need some food," she added at the end, her voice a scoff and a mutter.

Cassandra laughed as Bonnie took the bags from her arms and walked to the kitchen so that she could start making their dinner. Damon, who had apparently been upstairs, came down the staircase looking more melancholic than usual. He was the same old Damon, he still had that smug smirk on his face, the same rugged raven-colored hair, the same body-builder stance, but something was just...different. He smiled at Cassandra as she walked over to him, but she crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow.

"Hey," he said softly. "What's for dinner?"

"French Onion soup," Cass answered. "Are you okay? You look more glum than usual today."

Damon frowned. "Is that supposed to imply that I look glum every day?"

"Would it be the worst thing in the world if you did?" He didn't reply and she shifted slowly. "Seriously, though. What's wrong?"

Damon looked like he wanted to respond. Maybe he didn't, maybe he didn't, but the point was that, in the end, he ended up opening his mouth to say something and then closing it, plastering a smile on his face. He shook his head and watched her disbelieving look. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Are you...uh, are you coming to my room tonight or do you want me to come to you?" She stared at him blankly and so he amended, "I mean, we could always have sex on the couch instead. Or the kitchen? I've only tried the staircase once, it was pretty uncomfortable—"

"Damon." She stopped him with a scoff, holding up a hand. He looked down at her, waiting for the words that he knew were going to come out of her mouth. "I told you last time that I was done with this."

He hesitated before he replied, as he had done every single time before, "So my room, then."

"Damon..." she trailed off, but he just walked away, and she knew that he was right. It was just too hard to give it up. It was a horrible thing to do. She didn't want to do it, but somehow, every time she tried to make it her last night, she ended up coming back for more. It wasn't because Damon was irresistible, it was because of the sex. Sex with him was like a painkiller, and she couldn't stop taking them. Neither could he, for that matter. It was too good of an opportunity.

While Bonnie made the soup in the kitchen, Damon and Cass set the table. Bonnie brought their dinner over in silence and they all sat down for their meal. Bonnie gave Damon a spoon and he smiled at her without an expression of gratitude, and the only noise in the room was the sound of the cracking embers of the fire glowing next to the table. Bonnie watched Damon as he ate, finding, like Cass, that Damon was a little stranger than usual. When she finally realized what was happening, she sighed.

"I miss them too, you know," Bonnie told Damon, catching his attention. Cassandra, who was confused at the statement but slowly came to understand it, watched as Damon nodded solemnly and returned to his meal. Bonnie picked at her food, Damon's melancholic mood rubbing off on her, and in an attempt to lighten the mood in the kitchen, Cass pointed at the crossword sitting at the table.

"Oh, I didn't see that before. Good job, Bonnie, you finally cracked it!" Cassandra praised. Bonnie looked up at her with a confused look, so she clarified, "Twenty-seven across."

Bonnie scoffed. "I wish. Twenty-seven across is a rock I am pushing up an _endless _mountain."

Damon reached forward and grabbed the newspaper with the crossword. "'An old tongue twister Eddie turned Top 40. Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam'..."

"Yellow Ledbetter," Cass finished lightly, smiling quietly at Bonnie. "Way to go. Knew you could do it. And you didn't even need...what was it? Google?"

"Yeah. Good work," Damon agreed. Bonnie, still with a confused look on her face, turned and grabbed the newspaper to observe the letters of the crossword filled in to read, as Cassandra had said, 'Yellow Ledbetter'. She looked up at Damon and Cass with anger in her eyes.

"Are you messing with me?" she demanded.

"No," Damon told her. They both looked at Cass, who shrugged.

"Mess with you? How would I mess with you? You figured out the crossword. Granted, it took you four times as long as it took me, but still—"

"I didn't finish this," Bonnie cut her off, looking at Damon and Cass with worried, erratic eyes. Damon immediately looked up to meet Bonnie's gaze.

"Neither did I," he replied. They looked at Cass yet again for confirmation. She opened her mouth, but her expression said everything. Cassandra could feel herself panic; she was going to take responsibility for the crossword to keep Damon and Bonnie from finding out the truth, but it was too late. They already assumed her innocence and they realized by her hesitation that there was a fourth party with them. Whether they knew that Cassandra knew the fourth person or not, they still knew.

And the fact that they knew meant that Kai found the Ascendant. Two months. Two months was all it took for him to find the Ascendant that would free him. Bonnie and Damon looked around and the young Bennett witch spoke ominously.

"There's someone else here."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review! Next up is an episode-based chapter. Not sure if 6x03 will be in one sitting but we'll see. **

* * *

**RHatch89: **I think this one was pretty hot and dark too :) Thanks for reviewing!

**Scooter127: **It was sad. For a while though. It'll get even more sad because it wouldn't be a good Damon/OC without some drama. Thanks for the review!

**OLICITY-of-All-Kind-Lover: **Thanks! Bonnie and Damon will be mad at first but it won't stay that way for too long when they realize who Kai is and what he'd done. When they understand why Cass did what she did, they'll get it. They won't be happy about it but they'll understand. And they slept together again! Yay! I guess they do kind of have some chemistry. I mean, I hope they do, anyways. Their relationship will be hard, though, I won't lie. I mean, maybe. We'll see how I feel. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reviewing.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **I know :(

**Momsen-xxxx: **THANK YOU!

**Alleina Parker-Salvatore: **Thanks! I tried to incorporate Kai in these AU chapters more and he'll definitely be in the chapters a lot more now that we're getting to actual episodes. Damon is stupid but yes, he will get better. At least, once he gets back to Mystic Falls. This update wasn't as often as the last lol sorry but I tried :) Thanks for reviewing!

**vampangel25: **You are like the voice in my head every time I watch TVD. Thank God Damon didn't become human for her. It's not what he wanted and frankly, I'm disappointed in him for even giving it a thought but writers will be writers. But at least he didn't take it and he's okay. Though I'm really concerned about that finale. Anyways, thanks for the review! Here's the update!

**alexiswritesfanfiction: **Thank you! I hope to develop the character as I go along so we'll see how it plays out.

**surfgirl1: **It's just one of her afflictions. Besides, it's more of the fact that she knows there's no way that he can prove she's lying so she's fed up with him because he doesn't trust her when she tells him he can. It's a matter of principle. But yeah, honestly, she doesn't have a right to be mad, she just is because she just feels entitled. Like I said, an affliction. Thanks for reviewing!

**Aiphira: **Here it is! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the review!

**SilentlyTearful: **Thank you! You know, I'm thinking about it :) We'll see.

**RockaRosalie: **Thanks! Here's the update!

**Kels: **If she told them the truth, considering who Damon is and how badly she's seen that they want to get back to the people they love, she assumes that they would pick themselves over Kai and she doesn't want Kai to get out. It's a struggle for her too because she wants to leave, she just feels obligated to keep Kai in at any cost. But it won't matter now anyways because they'll find out the truth in the next few chapters from Kai's mouth. The main point I'm getting at is that Cassandra just doesn't want Kai to get out and if Bonnie and Damon knew that she knew the secrets of the prison world and why it was created, they would pressure her to get out which leaves a chance that Kai could follow. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Thank you! Their relationship will definitely grow a lot over the next few episodes. It grew a lot in this one, too. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**HermioneandMarcus: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**Lizzy B Malfoy: **Thanks! Here's the update!

**ThePhantomismyLove: **On it :)

**klandgraf2007: **It was more tragic than awkward. Though it'll be pretty awkward for Bonnie when she learns about it. Or maybe she knows already we'll see :P Thank you for reviewing!


	5. You're a Little Late to the Party

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**You're a Little Late to the Party**

xxx

Cassandra wasn't much of a runner. If she were being honest, she would have to admit that she was allergic to exercise of any kind. Sure, she had great metabolism, ate healthy food from time to time, but she just wasn't into strenuous activity. But for some odd reason, she woke up in the morning, stared at the ceiling for a good half-hour, and decided that she needed to run. It quite possibly could've had something to do with the fact that Damon and Bonnie were about to find out the truth, about to ruin what she'd spent twenty years trying to protect. But she told herself the opposite, trying to be optimistic about the situation. Kai couldn't get out without the Ascendant, which she spelled shut and couldn't be opened without her own magic. It was one of the things she never mentioned to Kai; it was her backup plan. She imagined that right about now, he was probably seething with rage because he couldn't get the Ascendant to work properly in order to take Bonnie's blood and run. But that all depended on _if _he even found what she thought he did.

Everything would be okay. She hoped, anyways.

But there was that doubt inside of her, that doubt that had seeded and forced her to go running to try to get her mind off of the pit in her stomach. The run lasted for about an hour, where she'd had 90's rock music blaring in her ears as she practically did a lap around the entire town. Upon her return to the boarding house, she realized it was only eight o'clock; it was early, but not early enough for Damon and Bonnie to be up. Still with her headphones in her ears, oblivious to activity around her, she took her sweat-drenched self and marched upstairs to her room, where she finally took the archaic headphones out and wrapped them around the old-school CD player. Right as she walked into her connecting bathroom, she nearly jumped out of her sneakers. The shower was running, as if it were waiting for her return, however no one was inside. Her heart started to pound a million beats per minute as a million thoughts ran in her head, one so prevalent that it was sickening.

_Malachai. _

Cass backed away slowly, hoping to evade the evil bastard, but before she could, she felt her back bump into something hard. She nearly screamed, or perhaps threw around a few blind punches to whoever was behind her, but she realized quickly that it wasn't Kai. A pair of hands came around and brushed her arms and lips closed around her neck, kissing very intimately, sweat and all. She let out a sigh of relief when the lips moved to her ear and she realized it was only Damon.

"How was your run?" he murmured as his hands moved to her hips, rubbing slow, insinuating circles. Cassandra stepped out of his grasp and turned at him.

"What are you doing?" she nearly snapped. "You're never up this early."

Cassandra felt sick to her stomach, thinking about him kissing her...which was odd. Sex with Damon normally made her feel better, not worse. It was a way to relieve her pain, get her mind off of things like Kai. But all she felt was the sick waves in her stomach distracting her. He would realize what she did, he would realize she was lying. What of her then? He would kill her, that's what.

However, she remained as clam as she could manage and watched him as he cocked an eyebrow. "So what? I'm not allowed to get up early? What's next, you gonna give me a bedtime? I think you can figure out what I want, Cassandra, use your head."

"I'm just..." Cass swallowed thickly and fanned herself. "I'm...all s-sweaty—"

He smiled sourly. She could tell something was wrong with him, but she couldn't pay attention long enough to care. The sick waves rocked harder in her stomach, the pain worsening. "Yeah, that's what the shower's for. Come on, get naked already."

"I don't want to do this," Cassandra protested, stuttering through her sentence. "Not today. I d-don't feel well, Damon, and that's...that's a good thing, anyways. We should've stopped this a long time ago. A _long, _long time ago. Just go take a shower in your own bathroom."

She fought the urge to ask him nicely, fought the urge to say 'please' at the end for fear that it would give her guilt away. However, she avoided his eyes, and it was most likely a dead giveaway. But she expected him to leave; she wanted him to go, anyways. Instead, he stepped closer to her, not away, and she felt his hand reach forward and start to lift her shirt off of her body. Releasing a sigh, Cassandra pushed his hands down and looked up at him, right into the sea of blue eyes. She opened her mouth to protest yet again, but he spoke first.

"Move your hands," he demanded, his eyes hard and cold. He could see her eyes harden as well, her back tense as she was clearly offended, but he didn't care. Damon shook his head tightly; he was not in the mood to be messed around with. "You don't get to stop this. You don't get to decide when this is over, you hear me? I decide that. So shut the hell up and move your hands."

Cass could've pushed him off, but her brain disconnected from her body and she raised her hands above her head so that Damon could pull the sweat-soaked gym shirt over her body and let it drop to the floor. His fingertips moved slowly from the length of her arm, down her torso, and to the waistband of her shorts, his touch scorching her already overheated skin. He slid the shorts off in a fluid movement and when he moved back up, his mouth was so close to her body that as soon as he was at level hight with her lips, he pulled her into a deep, animalistic kiss that couldn't be repeated. She was reluctant at first, the bitter taste of guilt in her mouth, but he wouldn't let her slack off. She had to keep up, and eventually, she was doing it because she wanted to. Her fingers unknotted the towel he had around his nude waist and once her undergarments had joined the sweaty clothes on the floor, Damon forced them over to the shower, where the hot water covered the two bodies as if it were one.

But no matter what he did, no matter what pleasure came along with having relations with Damon Salvatore, that sinking feeling in her stomach just couldn't go away.

xxx

"I got it," Damon hissed at Bonnie as they shoved each other back and forth off the arm of the cart in the midst of the general Mystic Falls supermarket. Bonnie exhaled, retaining her irritation.

"Okay." She grabbed a list she put inside the cart and read it aloud. "We need: strawberries, eggs, milk, and...ooh, candles!"

As they passed the candles section in the supermarket, she turned to Damon with a smile as she set down a white candle in the top level of the cart, giving Damon a bitter smile. Damon just stared back at her with a disapproving, monotone look.

"I know it's been a while, but you couldn't do magic as an anchor. So I'm curious, what momentary lapse of reason makes you think you can do it now?"

"Don't discourage her, Damon," Cassandra scolded as she picked up a box of cake mix from the aisle and hesitantly threw it into the cart. Her eyes lifted to meet Bonnie's as she smiled, albeit falteringly, "I think it's good that Bonnie's pushing herself so hard."

"Exactly." Bonnie looked at Damon pointedly while they moved over to the other aisle. "You know, when all this started, you _sucked _at making pancakes and now, they're somewhat edible—milk." She pointed at the fridge case containing milk and Cassandra turned around and grabbed a gallon. Meanwhile, Bonnie continued while she grabbed a pair of blue Aviators from a rack beside the refrigerated items. "There's no reason to be Peter Pessimist. We have proof."

"First of all, don't nickname." Damon reached forward and grabbed another pair of blue Aviators. "That's my thing. And this proof—this mysteriously filled-in crossword—could have easily been you."

"I didn't fill it in," Bonnie told him slowly for about the umpteenth time. Cassandra tried to control her beating heart as she listened to them and grabbed a matching pair of Aviators off of the rack Damon and Bonnie had pulled theirs from, making a face of approval as she slipped them on.

"No, you don't _know _you filled it in. You also don't _know _that you talk in your sleep—eggs." He stopped the cart and pointed to the case, where Bonnie opened the fridge and grabbed the yellow carton of a dozen eggs.

"What are you saying?" Bonnie turned around and looked at him pointedly with the eggs in her hand and her ridiculous glasses on her face. "Are you saying I _sleep-crossword_?"

He ripped off his sunglasses and snatched the carton from her hand. "I'm saying it makes more sense than the alternative."

Bonnie copied his move and snapped, "I get what you're doing."

"What am I doing?"

"You refuse to have hope that you'll see Elena again so you don't have to be disappointed," Bonnie chimed. Cassandra had stopped in the middle of the aisle to pick up some other food items she wanted to have in the house, and peered at Damon and Bonnie from the corner of her eye. With every passing second, she just got more nervous that they would realize the truth.

"I refuse to have hope because there's nothing to hope for!" Damon countered as they turned the corner. Cassandra sighed and moved to catch up with them, but she came to a dead stop when she heard the following words out of Bonnie's mouth.

"Pork rinds," the witch mumbled. It took Cass a moment, but then her head started to reel. _No. No, no no!_

After some shuffling, she heard Damon say, "No on the list and...ew."

"No, Damon. There were pork rinds here on this shelf! There have been pork rinds here on every shopping trip we've had for the past four months!"

"Um, um..." Cassandra rushed over and turned the corner, interrupting Damon and Bonnie. "Sorry about that, I guess I ate them this morning. I stopped by here on my run and...um, needed a boost of energy."

Bonnie looked up at her, confused, "So you decided to go with pork rinds?"

"Um—"

Before Cass could finish justifying her statement, they all heard a sound from out front. A carousel sound, like the one that was positioned in front of the grocery store that they passed every single shopping trip upon their entrances and exits. Bonnie looked over at Damon.

"You hear that?" He looked back at her as she stormed out of the store, Damon following, leaving his cart in the middle of the aisle. Cassandra was starting to sweat, and she rushed outside to catch up with the witch and the vampire as she watched the carousel turn around and around, the music playing mysteriously. When she looked up at Damon, she could see a disturbing feature on his face: a tiny glimpse of hope. Sure enough, Bonnie had to rub it in. "Hear that, Damon? That's what hope sounds like."

"No way." Damon shook his head, snapping out of the hopeful phase as he dropped to the ground and opened the carousel's fuse box. "It's got to be a short, faulty wiring...something."

"Or," Bonnie began, "someone put a quarter in it. Turned it on."

"Bonnie, no one turned it on," Cassandra snapped, looking up at the witch, who was starting to soil everything she had built on. "Damon's right, it was a faulty wire. I have been here for twenty years, Bonnie, don't you think I'd know if there's someone here?"

Bonnie shrugged. "Maybe you do know, Cass. Maybe you just don't want to tell us."

Damon scoffed. "So now you want to join the 'Cassandra's lying' bandwagon? You're a little late to the party, Bon-Bon." He looked up at the witch. "I'm a little confused with all this misplaced hope. All right, let's just say there's someone here. How do you know we're gonna get out?"

"Well...you say this is your hell, right? If there's someone here, that means it's _not _your hell. If it's not your hell, that means Grams put us here and if Grams put us here, there's a way out."

"That's a hell of a logic knot you've tied for yourself." He slammed the fuse box, unable to come up with a reason for the spontaneous music-playing. Bonnie seemed to take his insult as a compliment.

"Thank you. So, now that we've properly placed our hope, let's play a game." Her eyes drifted to Cassandra, who barely noticed Bonnie was stealthily staring until she really focused. Bonnie's eyes shifted on Damon with a smile. "When we get out, what's the first thing you're gonna tell Elena?"

Damon shrugged. "Sorry I killed Bonnie. That she was the most annoying person in the world." He started to walk away as Bonnie's face turned down and a look of offense crossed her features. "She wouldn't shut up! She just kept talking...I mean, it's a wonder I made it as long as I did! But here's the thing, I think it's better this way. Because she didn't have magic and she was pretty much useless—"

"Damon!" Bonnie shouted at him as he kept a steady yard away from her.

"What?" he hissed, turning around to face her. Bonnie shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't know...still think I'm useless?"

And there it was, right in front of him. Bonnie gestured to the parking space and Damon's mouth dropped in awe. Cassandra came up to Bonnie's side and stared at the blue vehicle in front of the grocery store, confused.

"Why is he so happy?"

"That's my car," he whispered. "That's my car!"

"His car was blown up," Bonnie explained as Damon hopped into the front seat and dug around for the keys in the light blue Camaro. They turned and watched him as he pulled out a key and nearly jumped with joy at the sound of the engine. "It was how he died; his car was blown up because they had to kill all these Travelers."

"Travelers?" Cass scoffed. "I thought Travelers were a myth."

"You thought wrong," Bonnie told her, a light and painful laugh breathed of her lips. They watched for a few minutes as Damon played race car with his convertible, pretending that he was some kind of hot-shot on a racetrack. After the first couple minutes, Bonnie and Cassandra were already getting bored. Cassandra, however, stood on the opposite side of the driver and stared at the car, pretending to be interested in it while she really thought of excuses on how to get herself out of the big mess that Kai was creating for her. At last, Bonnie turned around sharply. "How much longer are we gonna listen—"

"Shh," he hushed her, closing his eyes. "This sound is the opposite sound of your voice and I _so _enjoy it."

"How did it even get here, Damon? Did you leave it here in 1994?"

"I don't know, Bonnie. It was eighteen years ago...I had a lot going on that day."

She shrugged triumphantly. "Okay, so, you admit that it's pretty unlikely that you did?"

"Very unlikely."

"Which would stand to reason that..."

"Someone may have put it here, Bonnie," Damon finished, irritated. "Yes. I admit that."

As Damon fell silent and Bonnie smiled victoriously, Cassandra cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Or...the most sane option would be that Damon left it here. Because Damon never knows what he's doing, and since he had a lot on his mind that day, I'm sure he wouldn't remember something as little as putting his car in a parking lot."

Bonnie looked over at her and laughed. "Ha. Damon? Forget about his car? I don't think so."

"It's a possibility."

"No, really, it's not."

"I'm gonna tell Elena how much I love her," Damon interrupted them, in a daze. Bonnie and Cassandra both turned back to Damon in the car, and he caught Cassandra's weary and confused eyes for a brief moment before he turned back to Bonnie, cleared his throat, and smiled bitterly. "And then I'm gonna apologize for killing you."

Things were silent for a moment, and in that moment of quiet, Cassandra decided she was tired. Tired of covering for her ass, tired of trying to convince Bonnie and Damon of her lies. So unable to take it anymore, she pursed her lips and shook her head.

"I'm going back inside now," Cassandra told them, and without waiting for a reply, turned on her heel and walked back into the store. When she returned inside, she walked back to the cart and started to pick up the rest of the items that Bonnie and Damon had carelessly forgotten on their witch hunt. In the produce section, Cass picked up a box of strawberries from the refrigerated casing and turned around to put it back in the cart, but she didn't expect what came at her. She was prepared every other time of the day, but Damon and Bonnie had distracted her so much that she couldn't see the trick when it hit her.

"Morning, Cassie," Kai chimed as she opened her mouth to scream, the strawberries dropping all over the floor. He quickly covered her mouth and pinched her nose, muffling her sounds and preventing her inhalation. Kai clucked his tongue disappointedly. "Shouldn't have spelled that Ascendant shut, sis. I was _going _to be kind and just take the witch with me because of her blood and leave you here with your vampire, but you screwed it all up! You can never make anything easy for me, can you?"

She kicked in a desperate attempt to breathe, but he had the upper hand on her. Her body sunk to the ground as her breathing slowed, came to a halt, and her heart stopped completely. Kai straightened and looked down at his little sister with a smile.

"I don't know about you, Cass, but I'm excited to meet your friends."

xxx

When Cassandra woke up, it only took a second and a half for her to realize what was happening. She didn't know how long she'd been dead, but she knew that if Kai killed her, it was for a reason. It was because he wanted her out of the way while he messed with Damon and Bonnie, which meant that her secret was out, her lie over with.

"No," Cass hissed as she pulled herself up from the floor of what looked like the bathroom and moved to the door, despite the dizziness in her head. She swung open the door and rushed to go outside, but right as she was about to walk from the small hallway from the bathroom to the supermarket, she was suddenly pinned against the wall with a hand over her mouth. Cassandra was about to scream when she realized it wasn't Kai refraining her from speaking, it was Damon. He held a finger to his lips and slowly removed his hand off her mouth. She took a deep breath, swallowed down the fear in her throat, but didn't say a word. Damon peered over the wall, watched for a few seconds, and then grabbed Cassandra's hand, leading her behind him. She looked at the mess of strawberries on the floor, and in the next second, she felt Damon's hand ripped out of hers. The commotion she heard had come from the farthest side of the store, and therefore, she broke out into a sprint and ran over to where she believed Bonnie and Damon were.

Sure enough, Bonnie and Damon were standing on the opposite ends of an aisle, a trail of fire glowing in their faces. Damon held the wooden end of an umbrella in his hand and Bonnie was standing tall. Not to mention, Kai was lying face-down on the ground, which meant that they knew. It was over.

Damon turned around at Cassandra. "You know him?"

She swallowed, but there was no point in lying now. Bonnie and Damon looked at her with glares that told her that wouldn't believe anything she said, so she tried the truth and nodded.

"He's my brother."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**Scooter127: **No problem! Love you too :)

**queen ares: **Thank you! Here it is! Yeah, I'm still deciding what to do for the finale. I can either make Cassandra be the one that keeps Elena "sleeping" or it can still be Bonnie and Kai will have some other punishment for Cassandra that will force Damon to choose. I'm not sure at all but I've got somet time. Thanks for the review!

**RHatch89: **Oh yeah. So screwed up. They'll get even more screwed up lol it'll be fun times. Thanks for reviewing!

**vampangel25: **I thought they could've ended it better but I like the fact that he's a vampire, but the entire episode focusing on how Elena is perfect and Elena is wise and all that crap just had me rolling my eyes every time. And then the fact that she tells Stefan he's the love of her life and then tells Damon basically the same thing always pisses me off but hey, what can you do? Hopefully Season 7 is better because I'm so looking forward to this no-Elena season. Hopefully the writers will manage to get their shit right for once. Anyways, here's the update and thanks for the review!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **He definitely manned up in this chapter. Ish.

**DreamonAlina: **Thanks! I don't know, the idea kind of seems overdone but hopefully it'll get more original as I go along. Here's the next update!

**Loki Tethras: **Thank you! Here's the next chapter :)

**Alleina Parker-Salvatore: **I love Kai but he's still a murderer lol so I have to make him murder her once or twice. It wouldn't be fair if he left her alone. The coming episodes are going to be really hard on Damon, Bonnie, Cass, and Kai because she's going to refuse unlocking the Ascendant and Kai will threaten Bonnie and it'll definitely be a very intense couple chapters. Thanks for reviewing!

**GoingClassic: **What's gonna happen? Everyone will die :P lol just kidding. I wish Kai and Cassie were closer too and they will eventually...not kill each other every chapter but I don't think their relationship will ever be prepared. Especially after he ruined her life when he brought her into the prison world with him, which should be explained in a couple chapters. Thanks for reviewing!

**Momsen-xxxx: **YAY

**OLICITY-of-All-Kind-LOVER: **Yep, they're still sleeping together and...yeah, they're kind of addicted. But Damon's stupid love for Elena will prevent them from having any kind of physical contact in the outside word until at least halfway through Season 6. But that doesn't mean there won't be moments :) Thanks for the review!

**sakura: **Well since I'm following the plot they've met now. Bonkai won't really "start" until Bonnie comes back from the prison world and she and Cassandra start to talk about things and really get to be friendly. But Cassandra will make passing comments to Kai, don't worry. But, again, that won't be until after everyone's out of the prison world. Here's the update! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Thank you. Oh that's good I always worry about keeping my characters' personalities like they are in the show so I appreciate that. Thanks for reviewing!

**superfaraway: **Thanks! Here's the update!

**LMarie99: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**klandgraf2007: **Depends on your definition of "fun" :P Here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!


	6. And I Thought I Had Family Issues

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**And I Thought I Had Family Issues**

xxx

"Bonnie, listen to me!" Cassandra pleaded as she and Bonnie walked across the Salvatore lawn to the doorstep. Bonnie kept a few paces ahead of her, not responding to any of her pleas. "You can't trust him, okay? Malachai can't be trusted! Why do you think I never told you about him all this time?"

Bonnie scoffed. "Because for some sick, twisted reason you wanted to keep us in this hellhole."

Cass shook her head tightly. "No. No, I didn't. Believe me, I want to get out of here more than anyone. I wasn't supposed to be in here, okay? Malachai was but...but he forced me with him and i'm the one who has to keep him here."

Bonnie stopped in her tracks, causing Cass to nearly run into her as she came to the brisk halt. Slowly, Bonnie turned and faced Cassandra with narrowed eyes. "He's that dangerous?"

_"Yes,_" Cass breathed, relieved that Bonnie finally understood. Bonnie crossed her arms over her overalls.

"Why?"

The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but there was something stopping her. Fear, perhaps. Humiliation, maybe? It was safer if Bonnie and Damon didn't know. It was safer for them to be in the dark because if Kai knew, if they turned on him because of what he did, he would be even more relentless in the struggle to return home. Bonnie's powers were back, as provoked by him, which meant that he could get out. There was only one thing that was stopping him—the Ascendant—and she would die before she handed it over to him.

The young witch watched her betraying friend close her mouth and neglect answering her question. Finally, Cassandra whispered, "Bonnie, believe me, it's safer if you don't know."

"Believe you?! How can I believe you? You lied to us for four whole months! You lied to our faces, Cass!"

"I know and I'm _sorry_," Cassandra apologized. "But you just can't trust him. Just this one last time, you need to trust me. I don't have my magic...I can't protect you if he tries something again."

Bonnie shook her head. "We don't need your protection, Cassandra. We want to go home. You're lucky we're not leaving you behind."

With that said, Bonnie turned around and pushed open the door to the Salvatore house, swinging off the backpack from her back and storming into the house as quickly as she could. Cassandra reluctantly followed her inside, though she was again far too many paces behind.

"I found everything you asked for," Bonnie announced to Kai as she entered the study alone, putting the backpack on the table and dumping it out for Kai to see. "Can opener, shower drain, grinding wheel, jam, pocket knife, volume 'O' of the encyclopedia, a nail, and a black marker. Now what?"

Kai looked down at his hands. "Can't show you with my hands taped." At that moment, Cassandra reluctantly walked into the room, causing Malachai to smile. "Ah! Cassie, just in time! Do me a favor and use that knife to un...tape me, please?"

She crossed her arms. "Why would I do that?"

Kai pouted. "Come on, Cassie. Help your brother out."

"Malachai, stop _calling me that!" _she shouted unexpectedly, causing Kai to look at her with an impressed yet still pissed off face and Bonnie and Damon to look back at her with surprised expressions. Cassandra scoffed at all of them and rolled her eyes before storming over to the table, grabbing the pocket knife, and cutting Kai free of the tape on his wrists.

"And I thought I had family issues," Damon murmured to the witch on his side.

"Thank you," Kai chimed at his sister as she tossed the knife back on the table and allowed him free. Damon frowned.

"Okay...fine. How's this pile of crap gonna get us out of here?"

"I'll explain...as soon as you tell me what you did on May 10th, 1994," he countered, sitting up in the chair he'd been strapped to. Damon threw up his hands frustratedly.

"What difference does it make?!"

Kai sighed. "I'll put it this way. Bonnie's magic is one part of the equation. My as yet undisclosed knowledge is another part while Cassandra here has the key that will get us the hell out of here. Which means that you would be hitching a ride home for free. I just want to know if you deserve to come along."

Damon took merely a moment to think over Kai's words before reaching forward and yanking the pocket knife off the table and pulling Kai up by the collar of his hoodie with the blade pressed to this throat.

"Or I could just torture you until you say something useful."

"If you torture me, I'll get mad and then I won't want to help you." He looked at Bonnie with his eyebrows raised. "What kind of person needs to have that explained to them?"

Without answering, Bonnie reached forward and grabbed the knife from Damon's hand as the vampire let go of the useless third party with a displeased look on his face. Kai laughed as if something was funny, but no one else was amused. As Kai walked around Damon over to the couch, Bonnie leaned over at Damon with her teeth clenched.

"Play nice," she warned.

"Stop trying to impress the new guy."

"Why don't you just tell him your story?"

"Maybe because I don't want to talk about the worst thing I ever did, Bonnie!" Damon snapped at her, a cold tone in his voice. Behind them, Kai made an invested sound while opening the jar of jam and sticking his dirty fingers inside of it.

"Ooh! Now I'm listening!"

"You're disgusting," Cassandra snarled at him. Kai merely looked up at her with a smile and scooped a handful of jam into his mouth. With the same look of disdain on her face, she turned to Damon and Bonnie and shook her head. "You two have to understand...I know what he's capable of. You can't trust him."

Damon scowled at her. "And we should trust you instead?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, frustrated. Meanwhile, Kai continued to scoop jam into his mouth relentlessly as if it was the best thing he'd tasted since the pork rinds he had been eating in the supermarket. Damon practically laughed at her. "You trusted me once, Damon, you just have to trust me now. He's nothing but a lunatic and if he gets out..."

"If he gets out, what?" Damon stepped forward and crossed his arms at her defensively. She flinched. "Hmm? What, Cass? If he gets out, we'll get out? There is absolutely no reason to trust you! You lied to us! You convinced us that you were trustworthy, swayed us to your side, and it turned out that you were lying the entire time! That there was another person here—someone that could help us get out. In what world does that earn our trust in you?"

She exhaled heavily. "If I tell you why you can't trust him, Damon, he'll turn on all of us. He won't be asking for our help anymore, okay? He'll just take it."

"Right here, guys." Kai waved his jam-covered hand back and forth with a sour expression on his face. Cassandra turned to him and practically rolled her eyes again, but he merely gave a dramatically false betrayed expression. "And as much as I'm enjoying this...err, lover's spat, Cass, I'm hurt. What exactly do you think I'll do?"

She looked at him for a while, but she could see the look in his eyes. The evil look. If she said anything, he would force them to do what he wanted. He'd probably find some way to take Bonnie's powers and use it against her and Cassandra knew that if that happened there would be no way to stop him from getting out and leaving the rest of them behind, helpless to warn the others. If there was anything she could do to stop that from happening, she had to do it. So she stayed silent to his question, but instead raised a softer one.

"Why do you have to do this, Malachai?" she whispered lowly. "Just let it go."

"I'm sick of you telling me what to do, Cassie!" Kai snapped, his face turning on a dime. She tried not to flinch again, but her efforts failed. A dark cloud loomed above his head for a moment before he just looked down, stuck his fingers into the jam jar again, and took out the last scoop of jam from the jar. When he licked his fingers, he looked back up at her with a smile. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, that was uncalled for. But you know how I get when I get bored."

Kai looked pointedly at Damon, as if waiting to be distracted with something entertaining, but Damon kept his mouth shut and watched as Kai leaned back on the couch with the can opener he used to open the jar of jam. He spun it around his fingertips and looked over at the three of them.

"I need to be entertained while I work," Kai prompted them. "Hell story, please."

Damon lifted his head up from pinching the bridge of his nose and looked at Bonnie beside him. "Remind me not to kill him."

"Maybe...telling him your story will take your mind off of it," Bonnie suggested with a sour smile.

"Whose side are you on?!"

"The side where we get to go home to the people we love?" she told him, the statement posed as a question to him. Damon stared at her for a long time before finally agreeing.

"Fine." He turned back to Kai, who anxiously awaited his story. "On May 9th, 1994, I was living here. I'd come home to walk the straight and narrow. Tried to make things right with my brother, so I started feeding off of animals. See, Stefan loves bunnies. Or he did, anyways. Though that drinking blood from anything else was morally incorrect and so, in order to get into his good graces, I forced myself to swallow..._squirrels _to survive." Damon visibly shuddered. "Ugh, I can still taste the hair on my tongue. Anyways, we were living in this house with my Uncle Zach, who—"

"Your uncle is a vampire?" Cassandra asked him from the chair that Kai had been taped to earlier. Damon looked back at her and opened his mouth, where a struggled sound came out of it.

"Well...no. I mean, technically, he isn't our uncle. He's more like a distant...nephew. I'm not really sure how it works, but the point is that he was running a boarding house. One of the tenants was his girlfriend, Gail. She was pregnant. Always made Zach run out for ingredients to make pancakes," Damon informed them as he walked around the couch to the bar. But just as he poured himself a glass of bourbon and readied to finish the story, he heard the faint sound of Kai snoring on the couch. Damon frowned down at him. "Perfect. Our savior's insane _and _narcoleptic."

"No, no, no, I'm awake," Kai assured him as he opened his eyes and Damon walked around the couch back over to Bonnie. "Let me guess, you killed the pregnant woman?"

"Shut up, Kai, you weren't listening."

Kai sat up straight. "I was listening...in my sleep. You were hanging out with your distant nephew Zach who you call...Uncle Zach, because that's not confusing. Plus, pregnant lady Gail, who had a big bull's-eye on her chest. Got it."

"Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman!" Bonnie asked Damon fiercely, turning to him and awaiting a straight answer. Damon kept his attention on Kai, but he didn't have to answer.

"Oh, that's totally what happened! Why else would today be his personal hell?" Kai watched as Damon turned extremely angry and he stepped forward, squatting down to the the table and setting his bourbon glass on the surface. Kai's eyes lit up as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. "Oh, here we go."

"The only reason you're alive right now is because I thought you could get us out of here and you could help us. But you don't have any answers! You're just a man-child," Damon picked up the jar of jam on the table and threw it down angrily, "with jam on your fingers!"

The room was silent for a moment or two before Kai leaned forward and nodded.

"Okay. To get home, we'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic. It's called an Ascendant, and it looks like this, Damon." Kai moved his hand up and showed Damon the model that he'd made using the materials Bonnie had collected for him and he had been putting together while the three other people in the room had been distracted with stories and arguments. Damon and Bonnie listened closely as Kai continued, "The last time we had it was in the Pacific Northwest—Oregon."

Kai opened the encyclopedia to his right and pointed at a map on the page. Bonnie looked over Damon's shoulder curiously. "We?"

"It belonged to my family." Kai looked over Damon's head and to Cassandra, who was watching them all intently. "And she knows where it is."

Bonnie turned around while Damon looked over his shoulder, though he avoided Cassandra's look. Cassandra, while biting down on her nails, looked up at Bonnie who was waiting for her to tell them something that could help. But at last, Cassandra shook her head.

"I won't do it," she told them sternly, standing from her seat as she locked eyes on Kai. "I told you, I won't do it!"

Damon lifted himself from his feet and turned around at her sharply, snarling, "Are you that desperate to keep us here?"

"This has nothing to do with you," Cass pointed out harshly. He narrowed his eyes, but she remained strong. Without waiting for his response, she walked around him and looked at Kai with a deathly glare. "You can't make me tell you where it is."

Kai let out a disappointed sigh. "You know, Cassie, you used to be my favorite. Out of all our siblings, I liked you the most. You were different...sort of like I was. But now, you're just..._annoying_."

Suddenly, he jumped up and grabbed her by the wrist, suddenly slashing down the length of her arm so floods of fresh blood poured out of the split wound. he used the open encyclopedia to catch a drop of blood from her arm and then tossed her onto the ground, where she was caught by Damon, who flitted over to her so fast and tore into his wrist, putting it to her mouth so that she would heal. She protested against the blood flowing down her throat, but he barely noticed it as he looked up at the crazy psychopath who had stolen blood from his sister's body as he walked over to Bonnie and handed her the book.

"There. If you use a locator spell, you can find the Ascendant." Kai looked back at Damon and Cassandra with a heavy sigh. "Of course, only her magic can be used to unveil it, so it's a good thing you stopped her from dying. It would've been a pain to wait a few hours before she came back to life again."

Cassandra shoved Damon's wrist away from her mouth and forced herself up from the floor, where she ran over to Bonnie and grabbed the encyclopedia from her hand, chucking it to the fire that was glowing behind them from the fireplace.

"No!" Kai shouted as he lunged for the book, but it was too late. When he turned back at Cassandra, his eyes practically turned black with hatred. "You _bitch_!"

"You cut open my arm!" Cassandra yelled at him. "I used to pity you, Malachai! I used to feel sorry for you. I used to think we were the same, that we shared the same difficulties in our families but you're nothing but an evil, sadistic son of a bitch who will stop at nothing to get what he wants! So you think I'm gonna help you? Go to hell!"

Kai chuckled bitterly. "Joke's on you, Cassie, but I'm already in it!"

"And it's where you're gonna stay," she sneered, but this only made him angrier. He gripped the knife in his hand tighter and moved to strike, but before he could, Damon came at him and pushed him against the wall of the fireplace, knocking the knife right into the fire so that the metal bent and burned, unable to be retrieved. Kai choked, trying to gasp for air, but Damon just kept a tight hold on his throat.

Through his short breaths, Kai coughed, "I thought...you didn't trust her, Damon. Now you're...risking your freedom for...her?"

"She might've lied to us about you, but right now, I trust her a hell of a lot more than I trust you," Damon sneered at him, pressing harder. Kai coughed again. "You try going after her again and I _will _kill you. Don't underestimate me."

"How...sweet..." Kai choked as Damon released the kid while still keeping a firm grip on his collar. Malachai looked over at Cassandra with a small chuckle after coughing a few times. "Really found yourself a keeper here, Cassie."

"You deserve it," she mumbled. Without wasting any time, Damon moved and shoved Kai into the chair he was in before while he took the tape on the mantel of the fireplace and taped Kai down once more. Kai sighed, exhausted with being tied up, but Damon wasn't going to take another chance. When Kai was secure, Damon turned around and Cassandra and stared.

"Okay, you win," he agreed, walking over to her. "The guy's a psycho. Why shouldn't we trust him?"

"Don't, Cassie," Kai warned from his position at the chair. She looked over at him and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to take slow, deep breaths to prevent herself from panicking. "You said it yourself, you know what'll happen if they know and choose to exclude me. I'll make your life a living hell, you can count on that."

"No one asked you!" Damon yelled at him, turning back with wild, angry eyes. Kai just shrugged and turned his head while Damon looked back at Cass and Bonnie stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Kai and forcing her to look at them.

"Cassandra, tell us. He just tried to kill you but we still don't know _why _you kept him a secret in the first place. Please, just...just tell us the truth. We can help."

Cassandra looked between Damon and Bonnie, and through the crack between their bodies she could see Kai's murderous expression beyond them. But in a split second, she decided it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it to live her life in fear of him, not when she had two people on her side. Removing her eyes from Kai, she looked up at Bonnie and Damon with a stern expression.

"Find a newspaper. Bring it to me."

xxx

FAMILY MASSACRED IN PORTLAND

The title landed in front of Bonnie and Cassandra as they sat on the couch oppositely facing Kai, who was sighing in the chair as if he were disappointed at them all. Damon moved around and sat beside Cassandra, who was between Bonnie and Damon. She grabbed the newspaper and showed them both, pointing to the small news article explaining what she wanted to tell them. Cassandra looked up as she explained.

"I was coming home from boarding school right after our exams. I was overseas so it was earlier than a lot of the other schools had let out. My parents came to pick me up from the airport and when we got home..." Cassandra ran her tongue across her teeth as she watched Kai stare her down, as if daring her to tell the entire story. She didn't have to.

"The only one missing was a twenty-two year old named Malachai," Bonnie trailed off with a whisper, looking up at Kai with narrowed eyes. Kai looked at her blankly.

"Who names a kid Malachai? It's like they expected me to be evil."

"All these kids were murdered," Bonnie prompted. Kai made an offended sound.

"Hello! Not everyone died. I had a soft spot for one of my sisters 'cause otherwise I would've cut her lungs out, not just her spleen."

Cassandra shut her eyes, swallowing down the bile in her throat as Bonnie gasped. "What?"

"You can survive without a spleen," he justified, and then looked at Cassandra. "Too bad she wasn't home. Though I don't think I would've done anything to her. No one in our family wanted her, anyways. She was even more of a freak than I was. Still, maybe I would've played it safe. Not sure. Look, two of them I hung off the stairwell railing. Then I put a hunting knife through another one of my sister's abdomen. And one of my brothers I drowned in the pool. But he kept fighting me! I was like, 'I saved you for last, you ungrateful little'..."

"Enough!" Cassandra snapped at him, raising her voice. Kai sighed.

"Anyways, that was that."

Bonnie gave him a disgusted look. "You just killed your whole family?"

Kai scoffed. "Well, obviously not, since my sister is sitting right beside you. But other than her, yeah. Well, I killed my entire _coven _to be precise. You know, family of witches."

Damon looked at him, annoyed. "If you have your powers, why are you making us jump through so many hoops?"

Kai frowned. "I never said I have my powers. Cassandra doesn't, either, she got rid of them when she realized I wanted them form her. Hid them all over the place like a stupid scavenger hunt. Well, I never liked your stupid games anyway." He let out a huff and turned to Damon again. "Oh, and of course the Gemini Coven didn't take it too well when they heard what I did in Portland. It's why they banished me here. And I managed to snag Cassandra before they could seal the deal. We've had some fun in here, haven't we, Cassie?"

Cassandra stiffened and leaned back on the couch, refusing to play along with his game. She stared him down without saying a word and Bonnie looked at Damon on the other side of the couch with a slight shake of her head.

"This place is a prison," she realized before turning back to Kai. "They created it for you."

"Yep," Kai agreed, smiling at Bonnie before looking over at Damon with a serious expression. "This isn't your hell, Damon. It's mine."

Bonnie stood up abruptly from the couch and sprinted off, causing both Cassandra and Damon to watch after her as she left the room and eventually left the house, making that known as she slammed the front door on her way out. For a moment, Cassandra was reluctant to leave Kai knowing what he was capable of, but Bonnie was the priority for the moment. She forced herself up from the couch and followed in Bonnie's footsteps to meet her outside on the doorstep as she paced back and forth while the eclipse made its way across the sky. Not long after, Cassandra felt Damon come up behind her and close the door so they could have privacy.

"We're not letting Kai out of here, okay? He just said he's a serial killer," Bonnie told Damon sternly. Cassandra leaned against the brick wall in front of the door and crossed her arms.

"That's why I told you not to trust him. If he gets out, he's just going to try and kill every last remaining member of my family. That can't happen."

"I don't care!" Damon exclaimed at the two of them. "I want to get out of here."

Bonnie whipped around and looked at him with horrified eyes. "How can you not care? Maybe because of the horrible things you've done? Maybe 'cause killing a bunch of kids is not a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman?" Damon looked at her with hurt eyes, but she barreled on, "Am I wrong?"

Damon was silent for a while, but at last, he shook his head. "No. No, okay? You're not wrong. I killed Gail and I killed everyone else at the eclipse party Uncle Zach was hosting at the boarding house that day. I killed them all and I _liked _it. Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby, but he couldn't cover up all those murders. The Founder's council was restarted and Stefan took off, left Mystic Falls for about fifteen years—we both did. And when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldn't look at him without remembering that I had ruined everything. So it was a nice relief when I got to kill him." Bonnie crossed her arms as Damon sighed. "Okay. Can we go back now?"

"You might be okay with murdering a bunch of people, but I'm not," Cassandra spoke up behind the witch, looking at Damon with utter disbelief. He narrowed his eyes slightly, but she could tell that her words were having affecting him. "If Kai gets out, he will make sure that the Gemini Coven suffers a very excruciating death. That's my family, Damon! And I won't be a part of letting that happen."

"But I have to get back! Not just for Elena but for my brother. For _my _family, Cassandra," Damon told her while looking between her and Bonnie awaiting his answer. Cassandra shook her head.

"No," she said softly, but then cleared her throat and shifted. "No. No! I said no."

With that said, Cassandra stormed back into the house. Bonnie looked at Damon once Cass was gone and shook her head. She looked at him with apologetic eyes and said, "I'm sorry Damon," before heading back into the boarding house, following Cass's footsteps. Damon had no choice but to follow them back inside.

xxx

Damon walked into the kitchen later that night, noticing Bonnie at the table as she picked at two pancakes on the plate in front of her. He scoffed. "Shame-eating?"

"Thinking about that pregnant lady," Bonnie told him, staring at his back as Damon stood at the sink. "She had a thing for pancakes."

He frowned. "That's what you remember?"

"You remember it, don't you? You make pancakes every day."

"'Cause I'm bored!" Damon defended himself, turning around with a glass of bourbon in his hand. Bonnie looked down at her plate and shook her head.

"No. 'Cause you're punishing yourself. You call this place your hell, that means you feel remorse. That makes you different from Kai." She looked up and gasped dramatically. "Maybe there is hope for you."

Damon drank slowly out of his glass, but when she finished saying what she wanted to say, Damon sauntered forward and quietly started, "Look, we can still get out of here, Bonnie. Cass knows where that 'descendant' contraption is; if we come up with a plan that she agrees to, she'll get it for us, we'll find out what Kai knows and we'll ditch him! He doesn't have any powers, anyway!"

"Actually, it's not that simple."

Damon and Bonnie looked up, startled, as Kai stood in the doorway with a twisted, burnt knife pointed at Cassandra's throat that was sharp enough to impale her if need be. She let out a very frustrated sigh and Kai lowered the weapon carefully, rubbing his sore wrists free of the tape marks that had been made on his skin from earlier. Damon frowned and Bonnie stood up from the table, still recovering from the shock of his presence.

"You gotta stop doing that. It's creepy."

"Here's the thing," Kai began, "I have a peculiar effect on magic. I can't generate it myself, but I can consume it from others temporarily. My family called me an abomination. That hurt my feelings."

Suddenly, Kai reached forward and grabbed Bonnie's wrist, causing her to scream. With a flick of his hand, Kai made the kitchen stove burst into flames while simultaneously impairing Damon and Cassandra with the spell that caused their heads to implode. Damon and Cassandra pleaded for him to stop, and finally, Kai released Bonnie with a smile stretched across his face.

"You can see why my coven and I didn't get along."

Damon, still bent over the kitchen counter, snarled, "I smell an ultimatum."

"If I consume all of Bonnie's magic, I'm just gonna end up killing her," Kai told them both as he circled Bonnie and stood behind her, leaning against the chair at the table. "But, if we work together, we can all go home as friends. Or...I can devour her magic, kill you both, leave Cass here to rot, and go home alone." Kai moved and sat down at the table in Bonnie's chair, picking up the knife and fork from her plate. "What's it gonna be?"

He looked up at the three other people in the room and cut up a piece of the pancake from Bonnie's plate, putting it into his mouth with a satisfactory, evil, sadistic grin. But there really wasn't much of a choice.

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait on this, everyone. I've been busy for a few weeks but I'm back and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**Scooter127: **Thank you! Apologies for how long it took to get this chapter out but life has been so stressful lately lol. So basically it's a new start to Season 6 but it might end up spinning off in a new direction and becoming AU. I'm not really sure yet. But definitely be prepared for a lot of new things to happen in this story that don't necessarily happen in the show. And Damon and Cass will be going back to the real world together and Elena has already erased her memories...however, because of Cassandra, Damon might not be so inclined to really fight for Elena's memories back. All will be revealed in time. Thanks for the review!

**Scooter121: **Haha thank you! Elena will definitely not be happy. I haven't really planned that out yet but it's not going to be pretty and there will probably be some shouting involved. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**LMarie99: **Sorry, I know it took me a long time but here it is! Hope you enjoyed!

**DreamonAlina: **Lol thanks! They were a lot more understanding than I wanted them to be but I also knew that Cassandra's right about Kai since he's sort of a psychopath so eventually they ended up believing her at the end. Thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!

**HALEBTRASH: **Yep! Eventually lol. Thanks for reviewing!

**tashasparkle: **Well I'm glad! Haha obviously I wasn't going to be updating regularly since last chapter. Kind of had many things going on and I tried to write this but I had a lot of schoolwork to do before I went to Stanford and it sort of got away from me. But my hope is that I will be able to update this more often than I was before so there's something to look forward to! Thanks for the review!

**We're All M-M-Mad Here: **Ouch, sorry. Especially since I left it there for so long. Here's the update like...a month and a half later...oops. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thank you! Sorry for the wait but here's the chapter!

**DamonsSavior: **I will! Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the review!

**RHatch89: **Thanks!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **lol thanks for the review!

**Charlene: **Thank you! I don't like Elena either. Hate her with a burning passion. The story has some potential to be Bonkai and I will eventually have some scenes with them especially when they're all back in the real world but I mean the real relationship is Damon/OC but still...Bonkai will be sort of there. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Thank you!

**Guest: **I agree completely. Elena was acting all wise and shit for the season finale but I was just sitting there like 'no you need to stop' because she just pisses me off when she does stuff like that. Ugh, anyways I'm trying to see what I can change to sort of fix those final few episodes and hopefully they'll be better than the show. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Yes. Lots of Elena bashing. And yes she's definitely going to get jealous when she doesn't have her memories and wants to be the center of attention but Damon isn't gonna let her because he's kind of torn between Cass and Elena at the moment and she's just gonna have to deal. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Yep, Kai will kidnap Cassandra in that episode Elena is supposed to be kidnapped in. Except it's going to make more sense. A lot more sense. Thanks for the review!

**I'mJustMeForever: **Thank you! Duuuude you don't even want to start with me on Seasons 4 and 5 because I seriously could go on for hours about how stupid she was through both of those seasons and how she pissed me off in every single episode with her whole love struggle crap. I was so happy when I found out about Season 7 too. That was my exact reaction lol :P Ugh I wish Elena was lesbian so that Damon and Stefan can find women who actually care about them tbh. Yeah Damon deserves better. They both do. Anyways, thanks for revieiwng!

**Guest: **Here it is! Thanks for reviewing!


	7. Tick, Tock

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

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**Chapter 7**

**Tick, Tock**

xxx

"Oof!" Kai blurted dramatically as he sat in the uncomfortable chair he'd been taped to earlier as Damon, Bonnie, and Cassandra joined him in the study, all of them unamused at his theatrics. He looked up at Damon, displeased. "Man, you know...this chair is just so uncomfortable. Don't you have any chairs...I don't know, _not _from the 19th century?"

Damon smiled sourly. "Sorry, we ran out of stock on that type of furniture."

Kai tried not to smile, but inevitably, one conquered his lips at Damon's willingness to play with him. "What a shame."

"Enough." Cass sighed, crossing her arms at her brother, who looked over at her with a highly annoyed expression. "I'm not playing games with you anymore, Kai. You gave us an ultimatium, now what do you want?"

Kai frowned. "I thought I made myself clear." He looked up at Bonnie and Damon. "Did I not make myself clear? Oh, crap. You know, this happens so often. I guess I just get caught up in all the...niceities." Bonnie scoffed, but Kai chose to ignore it as he stared at his sister from across the coffee table and dropped his light tone. "To sum it up, Cassie, I want the Ascendant."

Cassandra tapped her foot against the hardwood floor, biting down on her cheek as she schemed in her mind. Eventually, she nodded. "Okay. Okay, you and I can hop in car right now, Kai. I'll take you to it."

He laughed, a piercing sound that nearly hurt her ears. She refrained from flinching, but she wanted to badly. When Kai's amusement was over, he settled and shook his head at her, wagging a finger in disapproval.

"No, no, Cassie. I know you too well." He set down his finger and sighed. "With your track record, you'll trap me in an avalanche again and I'll have to claw my way out _again_ and it's just so much work. And by the time I'm out, who knows? You three will probably betray me and by the time I'm able to get back and kill all three of you, you'll already be gone. And where's the fun in that?"

"You're sick," Bonnie snapped at him, capturing Kai's undivided attention for one of the first times since he threatened her in the kitchen. He looked up at her, unusually impressed.

"You know, Bonnie, you can be quite salty." A smile crept onto his evil lips, only causing Bonnie to look at him with more and more disdain. He only found it to be the catalyst to his amusement and therefore turned at Cassandra to continue what he had been saying before being plesantly interrupted. "Okay...here's what we're gonna do. How long will it take you to get the Ascendant and get back?"

Cassandra hesitated, but after thinking it over for a moment, she nodded affirmatively. "At least five days."

"Great. You'll do it in three." He smiled widely and turned his head to look at Damon. "And good news. You can go with her." Kai's attention turned back to Bonnie. "I kind of want some alone time with Bon-Bon."

"Gross," Bonnie muttered under her breath. Kai chose to ignore that, too, and watched as Damon scoffed and shook his head.

"You think I'm gonna leave your psycho ass alone with her for three days? Cassandra can go alone or she can go with Bonnie."

"Mm...did I say that was an option? No...no, I don't think so. So it's not an option," Kai hummed under his breath innocently before looking up at Damon angrily. "You're going with her. Think of it this way: you're her cheerleader. Motivate her enough to return the Ascendant in three days in case she forgets that poor Bonnie's life is in danger."

Cass stepped forward with a sigh. "Malachai—"

Just as she began to speak, Kai held up a finger at her. Cassandra let herself be cut off as he stood from the chair, a weary look on his face as he walked over to the window in the study and pushed aside the drapes covering the view of the Salvatore property. They all watched him as he peered out through the window and gasped before turning around at Cassandra, a wide-eyed look on his face.

"You see that, Cassie?" he asked softly. She waited while he continued with his unnecessary dramatic behavior. He straightened and shook his head at her. "Minutes on the hour, sis. You've got two days, twenty three hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-eight seconds left." Cassandra stiffened as he smiled again, sending chills down her spine. "Tick, tock."

xxx

_Tick, tock. _

_Tick, tock. _

_Tick, tock. _

_Tick, tock. _

She couldn't stop thinking about it. Kai's countdown echoed in her head, causing her entire body to shake nervously as she, herself, counted down the seconds she had to retreive the Ascendant and get back. Damon zipped down the freeway, the radio blaring '90s rock in their ears and the wind whipping in their faces at extreme speeds. Cassandra didn't bother to look at the spedometer—if she did, she knew it would be well over 100MPH, and she didn't feel like being an accomplice to reckless driving even if there weren't any cops to catch them. She just stayed silent, biting her nail impatiently while shaking her her leg to the timer in her head. It had lasted all of twenty minutes before Damon, frustrated as hell, reached over and put a firm hand on her knee, silencing the shake. She looked over at him and he gave her a warning glance, letting his eyes tell her to knock it off rather than wasting the breath. Shifting, she shoved his hand off of her knee and kept her own fingers curled around it while she leaned up against the convertible door, her fist resting on her mouth while she watched the trees pass by quicker than she could observe them. After a few moments of peace, she barely even noticed it when she started to drum her fingertips to the countdown clock, and when Damon realized what she was doing, he grew furious. Slamming the radio so that it turned off, he leaned over and molded her fingers into his fist.

"You need to stop that," he threatened her over the high speed wind. She yanked her hand back to herself. "I'm aware of the countdown, I don't need a reminder; let alone one as annoying as you are."

"This never should've happened in the first place," she mumbled, but of course, Damon heard her with his super hearing. "This is your fault."

Damon looked over at her, shocked. "My fault? How in the hell is this my fault?!"

"You and Bonnie weren't supposed to be in here, Damon!" Cass shouted, sitting up straight in her seat, staring at the open road. "I've been keeping Kai in here for twenty years and the _second _you two show up, he schemes his way out. If you weren't here in the first place, he wouldn't be putting me in this position and he would've stayed in here forever like he was supposed to!"

He scoffed. "And so would you. How is that fair?"

"Life isn't fair, Damon! I learned that the minute he dragged me in with him!"

"Oh, don't do that. Don't act like you never get a chance to think about yourself. You've been thinking about yourself for the last four months, Cass, lying to me and Bonnie the way you did."

She turned his head at him sharply. "Are you really still pissed about that?"

"That and the fact that I've been assigned to drive Miss Daisy and be her fucking cheerleader," Damon growled under his breath, but she heard the words out of his sour mouth. She was silent for the longest time, trying to hold back her laughter. Inevitably, she failed, but desperately she tried to cover up the chuckles with her hand, but Damon saw right through her once he tore his eyes from the road and glanced at her. He shook his head. "It's not funny."

"I-It kind of is," she said through broken laughs.

"No, it's not."

"Yeah, it is."

"Cass..."

"Damon," she mocked, staring at him challengingly. He looked over at her again and rolled his eyes.

"Great. Not only are you annoying, you're annoying and a two-year-old."

"Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black if you ask me," Cass muttered, knowing full well that he could hear her. Damon gave her an unimpressed look, but she had looked away from him long before then. He watched her for a moment but then returned to driving on the empty strip of road, forgetting to turn the radio back on. The wind whipped at them for a while until Damon sighed.

"Did you ever think about leaving?" he asked suddenly. She turned her head slightly, but he didn't look over at her, he only shifted in the driver's seat. "Trapping Kai in an avalanche and getting the hell out. It had to have crossed your mind at some point."

"You mean is there a way to cheat around the spell?" she clarified. He shrugged and Cass took a moment to think of her answer before nodding. "I've thought about it a few times. There's a loophole to every spell, Damon, and my magic just happens to be wild enough to cheat its way around it. And you're right. I shouldn't sit here and pretend like I've never been selfish in twenty years because I have. So many times...I have."

"So why didn't you do it? Why didn't you leave?"

Cassandra looked over at him and caught his gaze. "Because no matter how psycho he is, he's still family. There was a time when we were close, when we were united against everyone who were at odds with us. We're different in our family, Damon, and that made us the same." She paused and tore her eyes, looking down at her feet. "And like it or not, he's my responsibility now. So I thought about it, but I never left. I couldn't."

Damon thought over her words and realized that they were far too familiar. His own brother dealt with the same, the eternity of misery and all of his own form of psychoness. And the more he thought about it, the more he missed his brother, and the more he missed his brother, the more he wanted to go home. The feelings began to creep into Damon's heart as he thought about the home that he missed more than anything, but he knew it kept distracting him. The clock hanging above them both wouldn't stop for them to care about things in the future, only what they were doing right at the moment.

So he reached down, slammed the stereo on, and turned the volume up so high it drowned out the thoughts in his head.

xxx

"I think...Professor Plum did it in the kitchen with the knife."

Kai looked up with a smile, staring at Bonnie across the coffee table in the study, ready to pick up the secret envelope and see who killed Mr. Boddy. But before he could, he watched Bonnie as she stared him down with a look of extreme distaste, causing him to drop his smile and shake his head at her.

"You know, Bonnie," he scolded, "you're sort of getting on my nerves. This game is supposed to be _fun_."

She scoffed. "Passing the time waiting for my friend and your sister to get the key to getting us out of here or else you'll kill me is supposed to be fun?"

"Yeah!"

"You're sick."

"You said that already," Kai reminded her, disappointed. "Come up with some new comebacks, please. I hate when people recycle old ones."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Bonnie exclaimed faciteously. "Did I offend you? I didn't mean to...promise."

Kai chuckled. "I like you, Bonnie. I mean, I wish I didn't have to kill you if they don't come back but unfortunately...an ultimatum is an ultimatium. But if makes you feel any better, I really don't want to do it."

She frowned. "Gee, thanks."

"Welcome," he piped before reaching forward and opening the evelope to reveal who killed Mr. Boddy. With a gasp, Kai turned over the cards so Bonnie could see. "Look at that! Professor Plum...kitchen...knife."

xxx

Damon and Cassandra had been on the highway for nearly twenty hours straight before they finally agreed to stop at the nearest off-highway motel for a quick hour-long rest stop; no more, no less. Damon broke the locks on two of the motel doors so they could both quickly shower at the same time and get on the road as quickly as possible. They barely had time to grab a change of clothes before leaving the Salvatore house, but it was worth the ten minutes they wasted shoving a few pairs of jeans and shirts and clean underwear into a bag. Cass still hadn't told him where they were going, but he didn't care. As long as he got her there and back in time for Bonnie to still be breathing, he could care less. However, Cassandra had mentioned that if he kept at the speed he had been going for the first twenty hours, they would be there and back with some time to spare after taking the hour-long rest stops the way there and back with leeway for getting gas. Granted, it would be close, but it was possible.

It didn't take long for Damon to shower and change. The water was cold and the pressure was terrible, but he couldn't care less. After washing the day's filth off of his body, he changed, brought his bag back to his car, and walked over to Cass's room, where he could still hear the shower running. Damon knocked on the door before coming inside, shaking his head.

"Cass, come on," he scolded her as he entered the room. It had only been twenty minutes since they left the road and if she hurried, they could start driving again and cut down on the rest time.

"I'll be out in a minute!" she yelled over the water in her shower. Damon could feel the steam in his room and he frowned, realizing that he had chosen the wrong room to bathe in. He could still feel the slimy water he was sure came from some lake behind the motel falling onto his skin, but he pushed the thought out of his head and walked over to the bed, unzipped her bag, and pulled out jeans, a t-shirt, and her undergarments so they were ready for her to change in. He looked up and listened as the water shut off and a moment later, she walked out of the bathroom, dripping wet in a stained towel, scowling at him. "It's rude to rush a girl when she showers."

Damon gestured to the clothes in his hand. "Here. Change."

"Okay, jeez. You could be a little nicer, you know," Cass demanded as she walked forward, made sure the towel was tight around her chest and grabbed the clothes from his hand. He watched her as she put the clothes down on the bed and looked up, as if waiting for him to leave. Sure enough, she raised her eyebrows and gestured at the door. "You wanted me to change, right?"

He rolled his eyes. "I've seen you naked, Cassandra. I've done things to you naked, you've done things to me naked. We've seen each other naked. Just change. I have a couple questions."

She frowned and grabbed her clothes, walking back to the bathroom. "You know, I don't appreciate this whole 'I've seen you naked, you've seen me naked' nonsense. We were supposed to forget about this."

Damon sat down on the uncomfortable motel mattress with a wrinkled nose and shrugged. "We'll forget about it once we're back in the 21st century. Right now, I just want to know where we're heading to. We've been heading towards California so I'm assuming it's somewhere there?"

Cassandra closed the door of the bathroom and turned, but what she didn't realize was that the faulty door had neglected to connect with the threshold, causing the door to become cracked ever so slightly. Damon didn't notice as he pulled open a drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a rotted paper map, unfolding it. Cassandra sighed and, while she changed, told him, "We're going to Yosemite, okay? I hid the Ascendant on the top of Yosemite."

He groaned. "We have to hike the whole damn mountain?"

"No, Damon. You can drive up to the top of the mountain."

"Oh." He placed the map under the light and knotted his eyebrows. "Okay. It looks like we're only a few hours away. We should be there by morning and be at the top of the mountain by afternoon."

"That's the plan," she agreed, pulling on her bra as she shook her head and rolled her eyes to Damon's commentary. Damon looked up at the bathroom, and that's when he saw the crack in the door. Things were quiet for a moment as he watched Cassandra, somewhat creepily, as she dressed. The light reflected the beads of water off of her pale skin while she twisted her hair up into a loose bun and tied it up. Hearing the silence from in the room, Cassandra let her eyes flicker to the door, where she saw the crack and Damon staring from the bed. To anyone else, it'd be awkward, but to her, it practically rocked her stomach as she locked eyes with him involuntarily and neither one of them looked away. She walked up to the door and kicked it closed, snapping them both out of the trance. Damon shook it off, clearing his throat and shoving the map back into the drawer.

"Why Yosemite?" he asked her, pretending as if nothing had happened. He could hear her sigh.

"I lived in California for a few years, the very first time my parents shipped me off to relatives. I was...six, I think. My Aunt Vera would drive me up to Yosemite every weekend and try to teach me how to control my powers. I watched seasons go by...seasons I created. I lived there the longest—about two and a half years. Aunt Vera gave up on me when I created a storm that nearly washed California underwater. Ever since then, I only spent weeks or a few months at a time wherever I was sent."

Damon looked up and saw Cassandra exit the bathroom, looking at him for merely a split second before tearing her eyes away and walking over to her bag to grab a pair of socks. He lifted himself from the bed and walked over to the door where he grabbed her sneakers and handed them to her on the bed.

"So that's it?" Damon asked, watching as she slipped her shoes on and tied them tight. "We drive to the top of the Yosemite and there it is? We're done?"

She chuckled. "Nothing's ever that simple, Damon. You don't think Kai knew about my time in California? Yosemite was probably one of the first places he looked—which was the good part about it. It's cloaked by my own magic and only my magic can uncloak it."

"But you don't have any magic," Damon retorted. She smiled and finished tying her shoes before standing up, coming inches closer to him than she was before. The heat of her breath drew him in for a few confusing moments, her eyes looking as if she were inviting him to do something they'd both regret in the morning.

"I know you have someone to get back to," she said quietly. Damon tensed, and she realized it, dropping her eyes carefully as she said the words she'd been dying to say. "And this...it's only sex. If we're being completely honest, we were using each other to stop thinking about things we'd rather not think about. But the last time we were together, I was sick to my stomach thinking about Kai. It only brought me more pain and ever since...it's been nothing but agony. I don't know what to do with him; I don't know how to stop him once he gets out." Damon watched her as she looked up and gave him a soft smile. "Turn around."

Damon cocked an eyebrow and did as told, watching as she walked around him while his eyes focused on a ratty, mass-produced painting that was off-center and rusting on the wall of the motel. He shrugged.

"Okay...a painting of a beach at sunset. What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Just wait," she instructed, taming his impatience. Damon crossed his arms and stayed silent, watching as she closed her eyes and touched the painting softly with her fingertips. Suddenly, she arched and he jumped, watching as she winced slightly and clenched her fist around the ratty painting's frame.

"Cass..." he trailed off, concerned. He dropped his hands to his sides and watched as she fought to stand straight, doubling over and clenching the painting so tight that her knuckles turned a very unnatural shade of white. She didn't answer and he was starting to get worried. "Cassandra. Cass!"

The second he shouted her name, she opened her eyes and straightened at last, causing him to relax slightly. Her fist unclenched from the painting and she took a deep breath before stepping back. Damon's eyes widened as he saw something before him...something extremely strange. She stepped back, falling in line beside him, and she snuck a glance at him before smiling and looking back at the painting, which was now lined with a golden frame, shiny as a new penny, and moving. The beach cooed at the both of them, the trees swaying in a slight wind, the waves crashing on the shore, and the sun slowly beginning to fade over the horizon.

"In plain sight," she whispered triumphantly as Damon watched in wonder and then looked down at her, catching a glimpse of her soft eyes before she smiled faintly and jerked her head towards the door. "Come on, let's go. We're almost down to two days."

Damon stared as she walked around him and grabbed her bag, exiting the motel room without saying anything more. He looked back at the painting, which had suddenly turned back into rags, a rotting frame and rotting canvas with a faded picture staring him in the face. With a slight shake of his head, he tried to shake the thoughts out of his mind as he followed Cassandra out to the car and they hit the road once more.

xxx

_I like big...butts and I cannot lie!_

"You other brothas can't deny!" Kai sang along as the song blared over the speakers in the Salvatore kitchen. Bonnie watched as Kai held the end of a whisk to his lips and started to sing horrifically. "When a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get—" He stopped himself while the music played on and looked at Bonnie who was sitting at the table with a pout on her face and her arms crossed defensively. Sighing, he leaned over the counter and shook his head. "You've got to live a little, Bonnie."

"'Baby Got Back' is living a little?" Bonnie questioned. He nodded, and therefore she laughed bitterly. "You have no idea what living is, Kai. You're a serial killer stuck in a prison world the year Kurt Cobain committed suicide. And you're telling me to live?"

Kai hopped up on the counter and set aside the whisk as Sir Mix A Lot still played in the background. "So enlighten me."

"Excuse me?"

"Tell me about the 21st century. I've always wondered what it was like." He leaned over on his elbows. "Tell me, are there flying cars yet? I always thought there'd be flying cars in the 2000s."

She scowled. "No, there aren't any flying cars."

"Really? Because—"

"No flying cars, Kai."

"That sucks." He looked down at the floor and sighed. "Well, I don't have any more questions for you. That was kind of like a deal breaker for me. I've always wanted to fly in a car."

Bonnie couldn't take it anymore. She was tired of listening to the idiot babble, forcing her to play stupid games, and putting her through the torture of watching him dance to Sir Mix A Lot. Abruptly, she raised herself from the kitchen table and stormed out, knowing not to go too far but desperate for five minutes of alone time. Kai watched as she left with a scowl on his face.

"Fine! I don't like you very much, either." But by this time, he was basically talking to no one. Bonnie blocked him out of her head and refused to listen as he shouted. "You better be preying that your friends get back in time! They've only got two days left, Bon-Bon! Chop, chop!" There was no response, and therefore, Kai jumped off the counter and raised the volume of Baby Got Back, pulling the whisk back to his mouth. "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hon!"

xxx

Damon's calculations were right: they managed to get to Yosemite by morning and after taking a quick stop for Cassandra to use the restroom (because, unlike a vampire, she still had a bladder), Damon drove them up the coast of the mountain, the top of his convertible still down like it had been on the drive to the mountain. Cass was unsure of where to stop, mostly because she hiked the trail to hide the Ascendant before and hadn't driven up the mountain, but she did the best she could. She managed to get them as close to the spot as they could before they both stepped out of the car and she led the way.

"Just reminding you that we only have a day and a half to get back to Bonnie," Damon chirped from behind her as she took them down an unmarked trail towards Yosemite Falls. Cassandra sighed.

"I'm aware and I don't need a reminder." She looked back at him with a sour smile. "Let alone one as annoying as you are."

Damon scoffed. "Ha. Funny."

"I thought it was."

"Your humor is off," he determined, shaking his head. She shrugged.

"Well, I guess that is true because I laugh at all your jokes." She took a sharp left and Damon tried hard to keep up with her, but even for a human she was walking extremely fast. Damon didn't like to hike, mainly because as a vampire there was no need to. She could tell he was getting frustrated behind her, and it caused her to look back with an eyebrow raised. "You know, you can just go back to the car. I can find the Ascendant myself."

"And if you get lost?"

"I won't get lost."

Damon gave her a disbelieving look, but she was stern in her words. He managed to come by her side and kept up her extreme pace, and therefore he shook his head determinedly. "I'm not going back to the car. I'm your cheerleader, remember?"

She snorted. "Where are your pom-poms, then?"

"Back with my school uniform." He rolled his eyes, causing her to laugh. He smiled, triumphant in his words, and followed her as she climbed up a few large rocks, swinging herself up with the barks of the trees beside her, and finally, they came to a stop on leveled ground looking at Yosemite Falls right in front of them, the largest waterfall in Yosemite National Park. Damon put his hands on his hips and sighed. "Okay. Where is it?"

"There." She stood in front of him, making sure that he could see the exact spot she was pointing to. It was a hole in the rock of the waterfall, sitting right behind the heavy flow of natural water; a secret cave. Damon widened his eyes.

"How the hell do you expect to get to that fast enough so that we can get back on the road? We're gonna be cutting it close as is!"

"Calm down," Cassandra instructed him, looking at Damon with an unimpressed expression. He waited for her to explain how she would be able to pull it off, but all she did was turn and take in a heavy breath before dropping to the ground, sliding over to the edge of the cliff they were on so that she went over the edge, making sure her feet were secure with the rocks beneath her feet. Damon rushed over to the side of the cliff, his eyes wide.

"You're insane! Are you gonna rock climb this thing?"

She scoffed. "You act like I've never done it before."

"You've done it before?"

"Yeah, but..." Cassandra looked up at him and shook her head. "That's not what I'm doing. Relax, Mom. I've got this."

"Mom?" Damon repeated to himself as Cassandra made her way further down the edge of the cliff. He paced at the top, shaking his head. "Girl's gonna get herself killed."

But when he looked over the edge again, he watched as Cassandra landed on a flat rock sturdy enough to hold her bodyweight. Without further delay, she waved her hand out in front of her and Damon's eyes widened as he saw rocks from the bottom of the cliff fly up and connect themselves to one another, creating a thick path for her to walk across. It stretched all the way from the edge of the cliff they were on to the entrance of the secret cave. Quickly, Damon dropped to the ground and jumped, landing on the flat rock that Cassandra was standing on. It was then that he realized she was breathing heavily and he remembered: fear of heights.

"For a girl with a fear of heights, you sure do like high places," Damon muttered to her, his voice loud enough for her to hear over the rushing of the water. Cassandra turned to him with a nervous laugh.

"I like to test myself," she admitted, swallowing hard as she looked down, feeling sick seeing the abyss beneath her. "It's stupid, I know."

"Stupid for sure," Damon agreed, but then grabbed her arm and pulled her way from looking over at the edge. He brought his attention back to her and nodded carefully. "But I get it. Don't look down, Cass, it'll just make things worse."

"I know." She nodded and then looked to the side, seeing the cave at the end of her rock road. She slipped her arm out of his grasp and instead grabbed his hand, pulling him along with her. "Don't let go of my hand. My magic keeps this thing afloat and if you're not linked with it, it'll drop you."

Damon scoffed as they began to walk on the path. "Thanks for the tip."

He kept a firm grip on her hand as the two of them walked single-file across the long path. He was weary about the rocks, but they seemed to be extremely sturdy—probably a result on the strong magic that turned an old motel picture into a beautiful scenery. Finally, they both walked underneath the waterfall, inevitably getting soaked from the pounds of water over their heads. Damon shook out the ice-cold water from his head as she released his hand when they were both safely on the ground of the secret cave and the rock road that led them to the other side fell back down into the abyss. Damon looked at Cassandra with an eyebrow raised, but she shrugged.

"I'll b-bring it b-back," she shivered, a result of all the cold water. He opened his mouth to protest to her coldness, but she moved past it and waved him with her. "C-Come on. It's over her-re."

She moved them deeper into the cave, which had appeared to be smaller from the cliff they had been standing on earlier. After turning a corner, Cassandra came to a dead end, a wall dripping with water from the mountain, cold and wet. He could tell she was extremely uncomfortable, as was he, but she ignored it and took a deep breath, trying to stop the shivers. She held out a shaky hand and focused, her magic spewing out in shakes as she shivered. Damon took a deep breath as well and walked behind her, placing his hands on her arms and beginning to rub up and down for the heat of friction. She didn't question it, but merely waited a few seconds for the heat of his hands to warm her up for even a split second, where her magic then managed to come out in a steady stream and the wall suddenly had a hole in it.

And there, in that small nook in the middle of the wall, was the Ascendant. It looked exactly like the replica Kai made except not with a can opener and whatever else he used to create the contraption. When Cassandra put her hand down, Damon stopped rubbing her arms and she looked back at him with a nod.

"Thank you," she said. He shrugged.

"Should've told me to bring a jacket for you."

Cassandra shook her head. "We had no time."

"Right."

She reached forward and grabbed the Ascendant in her hand, tapping it against her palm in anxiousness before nodding and looking to the exit of the cave. "Okay. We, uh, we got it. Let's go."

"Wait."

Cassandra turned around and observed Damon, who was standing where he had been before, motionless. She waited, watching as he turned to her with narrowed eyes and suddenly stuck out his hand for the Ascendant. Without a word, she cocked an eyebrow, but he beckoned for her to give it to him. Slowly, she walked forward and set the Ascendant in his palm, where he took it carefully and turned back around, setting it again in the secret nook in the wall. When he looked back at her, she shook her head, confused.

"Damon, we don't have time. Let's go."

"We have enough time. One last time," he clarified. She didn't understand to begin with, but then he reached forward, grabbed her hand, and suddenly pinned her against the cave wall. Cassandra opened her mouth to stop him, but he took it as an opportunity, reaching his hand behind her head and bringing his lips to hers. A million thoughts ran through her head as he kissed her breathlessly; Bonnie was still with Kai. If they didn't get back by sunrise of the day after the next, everything would have been for nothing. Bonnie would be dead and Kai wouldn't hesitate to take the Ascendant, kill Damon, and delay Cassandra long enough to get out and leave her to rot like he promised. They had to get back.

"Stop." Cassandra pushed his chest slightly away from her and shook her head tightly. "Damon, we can't do this now. Kai will—"

"You want to spend your time worrying again?" Damon asked seriously, his eyes laser-focused on hers. Cassandra opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His hand came up from behind her head and he ran this thumb over her lip. "Every time you think of me, you're gonna think about the last time we had sex and how it made you sick to your stomach because of your psycho brother. So stop worrying for a few minutes. Stop caring, stop thinking. Let _this _be the last time. And enjoy it."

She wanted to stop it. There was a part of her that knew she probably should've. But like the day she decided to throw caution to the wind and jump him on the Salvatore couch, she found the agony inside of her a much bigger contender than the worry. Her hand came around his head and she forced him back onto her lips, where neither one of them objected ever again. Damon's hand drifted down from her mouth and joined the other in taking both of her palms, crossing them over the other, and pinning them up over her head as his lips drifted from the corner of her mouth, down her jaw, and over every inch of her drenched skin.

And, like she admitted honestly before, it was nothing more than a tool to let her worries drift away, let her thoughts become buried, and let simple words wash away as if nothing mattered.

When it was over, they returned back to the car with nothing to say, both of them enjoying the sounds of the nature around them and the bright sun that was beginning to start its descent in a few hours time. Damon studied the Ascendant as he opened the driver's side of his car and climbed inside.

"So this is the little bastard," Damon mumbled under his breath with a shake of his head. "All this trouble to get something the size of my fist. It's a shame."

"Mm, it's a hundred times more powerful than your fist, though," Cass corrected him as she watched him start the car from outside the passenger door. Damon set the Ascendant on the dashboard with a sigh and a shrug before looking up at Cassandra, waiting for her to get into the car.

"Do you need an invitation?"

"Nope." She clapped her hands down on the door and smiled at him. "You're going back alone. I've still got something to take care of."

"What's so important you've got to stay here?"

"If we're going home, Damon, I need to get my magic back."

"But you already have your magic back, Cass."

"Not all of it." She turned her hand and flicked her wrist, causing the stereo to come on at a soft tone. Looking back at Damon with a smile, Cassandra explained, "It's a lot of magic. Magic that won't expire because it isn't such a tiny fraction that it can't stick. This magic is here to stay but...it's not all of it. That's why I was able to control it so well at Yosemite Falls. If I had all my magic, those rocks would've been shaking and we would've never made it over."

Damon raised his eyebrow, concerned. "I don't understand."

"You aren't supposed to. It's a witch thing." She stood up straight and backed away from the car. "Don't worry about me, Damon. You've got the Ascendant...you'll get back to Bonnie in plenty of time. Kai will ask you where I am and...well, you can tell him the truth if you want. It won't affect what I have in mind."

Damon shook his head. "If you don't come with me now, you might not get back before we go home."

Cassandra sighed. "Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see."

"Cassandra—"

But she flicked her wrist again, and this time the stereo blasted up as loud as it went. Damon tried to turn it off, but it wouldn't, and by the time he looked up from fidgeting with the control, she was gone.

* * *

**So I forgot to mention this the last time I updated but there's a Damon/Cassandra video on YouTube! Has been for a while actually haha but because I neglected to update and then forgot to tell you all the last time I did, some of you are just finding out about it now. The link is on my profile but I don't know if it works because for some reason out-of-website links aren't working for me on my computer so in case it doesn't work for you, either, all you have to search on YouTube is Damon and Cassandra and it'll be the first one. Hope you all enjoy it!**

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**vampangel25: **Here's more for you! Hope you enjoyed it!

**Pompeii1224: **Definitely twisted. Thanks for reviewing!

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thanks! They're almost home! Damon and Cassandra have a lot of good moments later on in the season...even when they're fighting again. Here's the next update! Hope you liked it!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Soon!

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**Scooter127: **I'm far from her biggest fan. It's gonna be great because Cassandra will be pointing out all the flaws in Damon and Elena's relationship once she sees them that literally everyone thinks of. I don't understand why Damon chose to be with her either and I hope he finds someone else really soon. Thank you! Um, I'm actually not sure. I've been thinking about bringing in an OC for Stefan but it may just be Caroline because I'm lazy and I don't feel like bringing in another OC for Stefan and then another OC for Caroline. But we'll see! There's always a possibility. Thank you! Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!

**Scooter121: **Thanks! I have no idea what other pairings are gonna be in the story honestly right now I'm just focusing on the Damon/OC. A Stefan/OC is possible but I can't really tell you right now. Thanks for reviewing!

**HALEBTRASH: **They're gonna try. It's not really gonna go over so well but Damon's got a commitment to Elena so he's gotta be pretty good about it at first. But that doesn't mean things won't still be heated between them. Thanks for reviewing!

**Missy: **Thank you! There was definitely more of both in this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!

**PrincessMagic: **Thanks!

**Guest: **Thank you! That episode's gonna come before you know it.

**WickedlyMinx: **Haha I'm trying! Thank you. Ouch haha well, it kind of does suck to be her. Well right now she's going to get her powers back and when she gets back to the present, she'll have to try and control it so that it doesn't cause any issues. I have a pretty cool idea for Cassandra later on in the season but I'm still working out the kinks. We'll see. Thanks for the review!


	8. Go Find Your Own Hell

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Go Find Your Own Hell**

**xxx**

Damon burst through the door of the Salvatore house just as the sun peeked over the horizon, greeting the world with its presence. He rushed forward through the foyer into the parlor, where Kai was sitting in the chair he deemed uncomfortable, Bonnie sourly sitting on the coffee table looking completely disinterested with her life. Thankfully, however, she wasn't dead; and that was always a plus.

"Look at that." Kai applauded. "You got here with thirty-six seconds to spare. Congratulations, your prize is a bitter, boring witch."

Damon narrowed his eyes at Kai and softened them at Bonnie. "Did he hurt you?"

The young witch shook her head tightly, but Kai answered for her. "Relax, Big Brother. I didn't touch a hair on her judgey little head. Speaking of siblings, where is my sister? Did you get the Ascendant? Please tell me you did. I just congratulated you for getting here on time. I would hate to have to go ahead with my diabolical plans after congratulating you...that just doesn't seem right."

With a frown, Damon sauntered into the parlor and produced the Ascendant in his hand, waving it around for Kai to see. The evil man-child held out his hand, waiting for Damon to give the Ascendant to him, and with a sigh, Damon tossed the magical device over and Kai caught it with a smile. Damon watched as Kai practically looked at the Ascendant like it was his girlfriend (which, based on Kai's current situation, was the proper analogy for any lonely psychopath being held in a prison world) and cleared his throat.

"Your sister had some business to take care of. She'll be back soon."

Kai's eyes snapped up. "Cassie? What could she possibly have to take care of?"

Damon shrugged. Cass had told him that he could tell Kai the truth, but he'd be damned if he made it that easy for him. "Beats the hell out of me."

"Well you better hope she makes it back soon." He looked back and forth between Bonnie and Damon with a wide grin. "What do you say, friends? It's time to get the hell out of dodge!"

xxx

_Her eyes opened to her surroundings: the sight of the black night. Her breath hitched, but she had no idea that her breathing pattern had spiked so drastically. Dirt caked her greasy hair, covered her shaking fingers, and enveloped her freezing body. All she could remember was the blur of tragic events that had happened after she returned home for break. All the evil things that Kai said and did washed over her mind like a tidal wave, and then at last, she remembered the last thing that happened before her eyes opened so violently. _

_Cassandra slowly sat up straight, her nails digging into the ground. She looked around cautiously with wide, nervous eyes. She could feel the fear and adrenaline pulsing through her body, throbbing alongside of her magic that itched to break free. She kept a firm grasp on the dirt beneath her fingertips so that her magic wouldn't be able to overturn her, but she didn't know how long it would last and how catastrophic it would be. Fear always sparked a not-so-good reaction out of her magic. _

_And then, though it was in the faint distance, she could hear it. She could hear someone...screaming. It was a painful scream, one that made Cassandra flinch out of her own skin. Slowly, she lifted herself off the ground while keeping her fists clenched so tightly that she drew blood. Carefully, she tip-toed through the forest, realizing only then that she was barefoot. She made her way over to the screaming, though it was probably a bad idea. Her throat felt thick and her mouth was as dry as a desert from the fear eating her alive. _

_She saw him on his knees in the distance, screaming like a mad man. Kai. His eyes blazed a fury she'd never seen alight before and his scream, more like a snarl, was chilling. Cassandra wrapped her hand around the trunk of a tree and tried to calm her breaths so he wouldn't hear her. She had to turn around, she knew that. She had to...had to turn around_—

_"You." _

_Cassandra gasped loudly as Kai's eyes caught hers and realized that he wasn't alone. But it wasn't a good thing; he was looking at her with so much anger, she thought he'd explode right then and there. Kai lifted himself from the ground, and at this point, Cassandra ran. What else could she do? Her brother had murdered her entire family, she'd seen the aftermath. He was a psychopath. He'd gone certifiably crazy. And that was proven when he sprinted after her, gaining on her by the second. She pushed past branches and ignored the cuts that were forming on her feet from the foreign objects hitting the bottom of her feet on the forest floor. But it was too much for her. Kai was relentless and she was running for her life, and no matter what adrenaline pumped through her, it didn't change simple physics. She tripped, of course, over a log that was in her pathway. It brought her to her knees, and just as she scrambled to get up onto two feet and begin running again, Kai tackled her to the ground. Cassandra struggled to get out of his grasp, but he flipped her over and pinned her arms down to the ground, despite her legs kicking underneath him. _

_"Stop!" Cassandra shouted. "Malachai, get off! Get off!" _

_"Ungrateful little bitches. I don't know what they did to me, but I don't care." Cassandra fought him harder, but he slammed her wrists down to the ground and screamed right in her face, "Stop fighting, Cassie! You should be thanking me! I saved you from those evil twits!" _

_"Thanking you?!" she retorted, her eyes widening as a tear slipped out from underneath them. Kai narrowed his eyes at her. "You dragged me with you! You dragged me in this hellhole with you and you're asking me to thank you? Go find your own hell, Malachai!"  
_

_He frowned. "Fine! You want to be an ungrateful bitch too? I'll show you what I do to ungrateful bitches like you, then!" _

_"Get_—_" Cassandra started to push him off, but he just wrapped a hand around her throat and slammed her against the rock next to her head. She screamed, but could barely get any wind from her throat because of Kai's hard grasp. She could feel the impact of the rock against her skull, damaging the bone over and over again until she finally gave way. But yet, Kai still kept going. Over and over and over again, he hit his sister's head against the rock until her blood coated the rock and he'd had enough. _

_xxx_

Cass stared at the circle of branches and piles of leaves even spaced between the trees of Yosemite Park. Though she disappeared from Damon's sight, the only thing she really did was cloak herself so that she could make him leave Yosemite and return for Bonnie and begin making preparations to go home. What she needed still remained at Yosemite; or, technically, the first step to attaining what she needed still remained at Yosemite. Cass let out a sigh and sat down on the dirt floor and flicked her hands up, lighting all the piles of leaves outside the ring of branches. Improvisation, that was the way to go.

"Let's do this," Cassandra said to herself confidently with a nod as she took a deep breath and started the spell. "_Spiritus me auferte. Quo me ire volo. Auferte me! [Spirits, take me. Take me to where I want to go. Take me!]" _

The flames jumped a foot higher and Cassandra threw her head back as the spirits swarmed around her and took over her magic. She welcomed their presence, felt their magic tingling at her fingertips, and was completely unaware that the world around her was chaotic. Not as chaotic as it normally would be with all of her magic, but with the magic that she had inside of her, it was enough to create a change in wind speed and an uproar in her surroundings. This chaos lasted all of ten seconds before the piles of leaves extinguished, the wind slowed, and Cassandra was cast onto one side of her body, blood dripping down from her nose because of the lack of the majority of her magic. When her eyes opened, she noticed the blood trickling down and wiped it off cautiously while groggily opening her eyes. When the dust settled and she could see clearly, she looked up and saw exactly what she wanted from the spirits.

Italy.

Piazza Navona, to be exact. Cassandra stood up, but felt a strange numbing sensation in her feet. When she looked down, she saw that her body was still lying on the ground, passed out cold. She knew the spell called upon the spirits' help to trasport her to another location, but she didn't think they'd take it so literally. When Cassandra stepped forward and outside of her body, she regained the feeling in her legs and turned around to look at her unconscious form on the ground. She looked so peaceful, Cassandra noted. Like how it used to be.

Shaking herself out of that mentality, Cassandra turned and remembered: the spell gave her a certain amount of time, but that time was determined by the feeling she remained in her body. As it stood then, she could feel every limb in her body, but she knew that as time went on, it would get worse. There wasn't time to waste.

When Cassandra turned, she saw what she was looking for. The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi stood in front of her, standing tall and proud in the desolate prison world. Cassandra took a deep breath and swallowed. She could do this. It was time to reunite herself with her magic once and for all, no matter what the cost. So she trudged forward, stepped over the side of the fountain, and disregarded the fact that her clothes were getting wet as she stood in the center of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. The feeling in her fingers started to tingle, and she knew she had to work fast. Kneeling onto the bottom of the fountain, she searched for that special coin that was clear as day in her head. She scanned the waters for the coin, her fingers falling obsolete as the feeling was taken away from her in an instant. There were too many coins for her to sort through in the time that she was given, but she was persistent enough to make it happen. Water splashed everywhere, but she didn't care. She could be soaked from head to toe and paralyzed, but she needed to find that coin. If there was any chance at all to stop Kai from succeeding, it was to find that coin.

And then, as if it were shining just for her, she found it. Her thumbs griped in the water until she was finally able to get it into her hand and pull it out of the fountain, holding it up in the air to make sure it was the one. She stood and squinted in the light as she examined the coin. An Italian Lire from 1932, that was the one. Cassandra sighed of relief holding it in her palm, but she didn't take the magic. Not yet. She had to get back to Kai, Damon, and Bonnie first to do that.

She just hoped she would make it in time.

xxx

Bonnie raised her eyes as she listened to Damon whistle behind her chipperly, like they weren't being threatened by a psychopathic killer to take him back to their world or else. She glanced back at Damon with confusion.

"You're in a good mood for the first time this decade," she mentioned with an edge. Damon just smiled and swung the branch in his hand, causing Bonnie to become weary and demand, "Stop that."

"I have a hot date with my _girl _tonight," Damon declared. Bonnie frowned.

"Yeah, assuming Kai's telling the truth."

"I'm thinking dinner and a movie. You know what? Screw the dinner and the movie...skip straight to the good part!"

"Yeah, and assuming I can do the spell, which I won't know until...I see it." Bonnie looked back at Damon with a slightly confused look. "Besides, what's the rush to get back to Elena, huh?"

The vampire scoffed and cocked an eyebrow. "Um, is that a real question or...?"

The young witch stopped them both short as they were walking through the forest to meet Kai where he said he would be as he determined the right spot for the spell to happen. Bonnie turned to Damon and crossed her arms, making sure her backpack was still tight on her shoulder as she gave Damon a disapproving look. "Come on, Damon, I'm not blind...or deaf, for that matter. I know what's been going on between you and Cassandra for the last four months."

Damon's smile instantly turned into a frown. "Oh. That."

"Yes. 'That'. Do you have an explanation?"

"If I give you one, will you promise not to tell Elena what's been going on between us?" The Bennett stared at her friend incredulously, but Damon already knew the answer to that. He rolled his eyes and tried to muster the simplest excuse possible, "It was...stress release. Let's put it that way."

Bonnie's eyes widened. "So you've been cheating on my best friend because you needed to release some _stress_? You know, there are other ways to deal with stress other than having sex!"

Damon groaned. "Look, I screwed up, okay?! I lost hope and she was there. It's not a big deal."

"Well, I think it is." Bonnie paused for a moment and watched as Damon desperately tried to avoid her shameful look. But surprisingly, Bonnie's look changed from shameful to natural. "You know...I like Cass. I do. I know we're both angry at her for lying but...she did it for the right reasons. After learning about Kai, I can understand why she didn't want us to know. Honestly, in her situation, I don't blame her anymore. And from what I've learned about her, you two...sort of...make _sense_."

The vampire looked back at the witch with confounded eyes. "Bonnie, it was sex."

"I know that."

"Then why are you acting like I had some deep emotional affair with a girl I met four months ago?!"

"I'm not! I'm not! I'm just saying that...you know...you and Elena never really made a lot of sense to me or...to _anyone, _for that matter. Not that I'm saying it was right of you to sleep with the first girl you met after dying or anything, but if, by some miracle, we actually manage to get out of here—"

"Now look who's being Polly Pessimist," Damon pointed a finger at her. Bonnie scowled at him as he began to walk again, completely ignoring the subject at hand. "What ever happened to hope, Bon? Remember when I was all 'boo, rrrr,' and you were all, 'hooray! hooray, we're getting out of here!'?"

"Look, I wanna go home more than anything, but Kai's a sociopath. Who's to say he won't screw us over?"

"Me. I say. Because I will kill Kai and anyone who comes in the way of me going home." He used his branch to symbolize something of a sword fight, and just as he finished his proclamation, Kai stepped out from behind a tree to greet his two new friends with a smile.

"I heard my name. All good, I hope." Kai looked up at the sky with the Ascendant in his hand and told them, "The eclipse will happen directly overhead. In perfect alignment with the Gemini constellation. You need to dig under the tunnels below us. We'll do the spell there." He looked at Damon pointedly.

Bonnie shook her head. "Why?"

He looked back at Bonnie with incredulity. "Have you never portal-jumped through an eclipse before?" Obviously, the answer was no. "Okay, look, the light of the eclipse will shine down and activate the Ascendant. You spout a little witchy woo and then...poof! Anyone standing in the circle of light holding the Ascendant goes home."

"By 'witchy-woo', I assume you mean the spell. Let me see it."

"When the time comes." Kai smiled and walked past Bonnie and Damon.

"Where are you going?" Damon asked skeptically, narrowing his eyes at the sociopath in front of them.

"Into town. I need to...gather some important supplies."

Bonnie frowned at Kai as he walked away with a triumphant smile on his face, and meanwhile, Damon tossed his stick aside for the lovely pickaxe awaiting his labor to begin their first step on the way home. With great enthusiasm, Damon swung down the pickaxe on the forest floor and set to work.

xxx

_In haste, Cassandra doubled over on her side as she climbed out of the hole she had dug for herself from underground. Kai had buried her alive, she realized as she caught her breath, inhaling the fresh air underneath the sunlit sky of the next morning. Her eyes drifted up, however, and she noticed something peculiar. The eclipse that happened before, it was happening again. A celestial event two days in a row? That didn't happen. Cassandra hadn't known what her family had planned for Kai, but right about then, she had a good idea of what it was. And at that moment, she realized something else. Kai didn't bury her alive, oh no, of course not. She felt her death when he banged her head against that rock so hard that her skull shattered into pieces as he continued over and over again. _

_He buried her dead, that's what he did. _

_It made sense if she thought about it. To give Malachai the privilege of being able to kill himself would be too easy. Both she and him were immune to death, seeing as they were both brought in under the original spell. There was no death for them, only torture. Hell, to be more precise. _

_Cassandra knew she had to start moving. If Kai came back, he would see how not-dead she was and realize that he wasn't alone again. If Kai came back, he would try again to kill her. He would make her life miserable. He would_—

_"You've got to be kidding me." _

_Too late, she thought as she turned over onto her back and watched as Kai walked forward, his eyes narrowing at the sight of her caked in dirt once more, this time from his own doing. Cassandra tried to move back subtly, attempting not to make a big scene for Malachai to interpret the wrong way. _

_"You were supposed to be dead," he noted. "But...you're not. But...I killed you!"  
_

_Cassandra swallowed thickly. "It doesn't work that way, Malachai." _

_She could see him pause briefly and think it over before finally understanding it, giving her a look. "Oh, that's it, isn't it? I can't kill you and the eclipse is happening again. We're trapped, aren't we?" _

_"Y-Yes." _

_"And you were in on it this whole time?" Kai stalked forward and she tried to scoot back, but he was too quick for her. And if she made any sudden movements, there was no telling what he'd do after last time. Kai bent down and tsked at her. "What a shame, Cassie. I guess I really did pull you into a hellhole after all, didn't I?" _

_Cassandra gripped the dirt and leaves behind her, trying to contain a control on her magic. No matter what the situation, her magic wouldn't help anyone. It was too wild; too unpredictable. And add that onto the fact that she was running amuck with fear...it wasn't a pretty picture. But there was nothing she could do about it as she felt the magic itching at her, the juice dripping off from her permeable fingertips. Her magic was escaping, ready to do what she wouldn't. It only worsened as Kai reached forward, a malicious look on his face while she tried to desperately scoot back. Her heart rate spiked, her fear mounted, and it was over. Her magic refused to listen any longer. _

_Seasons changed. Time froze. Anything that was possible to imagine happened. Kai looked around him as the leaves from the trees circled him with envy, the trees violently rushed in the 100MPH wind, and the skies opened up with a rain heaver than ever before. He growled over the noises, but Cassandra lifted herself up from the ground and tried to stop it, but nothing could. Her hands burned from the power that escaped it, but though she clenched and unclenched her fists two hundred times in a row, nothing changed. The slightest move of her finger and Kai was flung across the forest and hit a tree, no doubt paralyzing him. He let out a scream as, with another twitch, his body began to convulse and his hand involuntarily reached out to grab a rock beside him. Kai groaned over the pouring rain that drenched him with the waters from their hellish sky, and Cassandra watched as he hit himself over and over again with the rock in his hand. She tried desperately to contain all of her magic, but the more she closed her fists and let her nails dig into the skin, the worse it got. Eventually, Kai let out a scream that served as his final breath as his skull, severely demented, had finally had enough blows to cause his body to shut down. He dropped the rock, dead, but the scenery around Cassandra didn't stop. She rushed forward to examine her dead brother, but as evil as he was, she felt terrible about it. She never meant to hurt him, but her magic was uncontrollable. If it sensed danger, it eliminated it. She had absolutely no say in the matter. _

_Just as she was about to turn away, knowing that she needed to get the hell out of Portland before Kai could find her again after the episode they'd had, she caught a glimpse of something shining in his jacket pocket. Curious, Cassandra bent down and slowly reached inside, bringing her hand around a round object. When she pulled it out, she realized exactly what it was: the Ascendant. It was what her family had told her would bind Kai to the spell and keep him in the prison world forever. It was the key to the hell they were sent to. _

_Cassandra took the Ascendant, turned on her heel, and broke out into a sprint, running agains the rain to find salvation from her murderous sibling._

xxx

Bonnie listened to the gruesome sound of the pickaxe striking the ground over and over again as Damon made significant progress with Kai's task. She looked down at the sweating vampire and grimaced pessimistically.

"Hey!" she called down to him. "You know there's a very probable chance you're digging your own grave and..." Damon looked up at her with a pointed stare, so she stopped talking and said in a high-pitched tone, "Not bothered."

After taking a moment to reflect on her words, Damon shook his head and turned back to the ground, where he swung the pickaxe again and finally, after almost an hour of hard labor, struck ground that crumbled beneath him, revealing exactly what Kai said would be there. Damon huffed triumphantly and looked up at Bonnie with that 'I told you so' face, but before he could express his correctness, a voice spoke from above ground behind the young witch.

"Looks like I got back just in time," Malachai noted as he swung his backpack down on the ground and gave the Bennett a smile. The vampire down in the pile of dirt he had dug swung his pickaxe above ground and flashed up to Kai, where he grabbed the backpack on the ground and began to rifle through it cautiously.

"Zima, grunge, every...Alex Rodriguez rookie card known to man...and a pager? Really?"

Kai scoffed. "Five-five-five-hi-Kai. No way I'm giving those digits up!"

"These were the important supplies you had to get?"

"Look, the future sounds great, all right? I'm super excited about the Internet! But...1994 has been my home for most of my life. I'd hate to get homesick. So, let's get down there—"

"No." Bonnie cut Kai off as she stood from the ground, narrowing her eyes at the sociopath before them. Damon turned back around at Bonnie, but she just shoved him behind her and looked into Kai's eyes with determination. "_We _are not going anywhere until you show me the spell."

"Oooookay." Kai rolled his eyes, put his hands in his pockets, and smiled up at Bonnie and Damon without a word. Bonnie just stood in front of him without moving a muscle, but behind the witch, Damon narrowed his eyes skeptically, bored of the two of them already.

"Are we literally not going anywhere?" he asked impatiently.

"Fine." Bonnie sighed. "You don't wanna show me the spell, then you can do it yourself. You...want my magic?" She held out her hand. "Take it."

"Uh-oh." Kai looked up at Damon. "She's being brave."

"I'm serious, Kai! This was your big threat, wasn't it? If I don't do the spell and let us out of here, you'll just take my magic, leave me for dead, and do the spell yourself. Go ahead. Take..._all _of it."

The two stared at each other for a moment, but at last, Kai took in a deep breath and nodded. "Don't mind if I do."

Suddenly, he reached forward and clapped her shoulders, sucking in her powers from the touch of her skin. Bonnie gasped as she felt the power start to flow from her and into him, and she could hear Damon behind her protesting to what she was doing.

"Bonnie..."

"It's okay." She looked into Kai's eyes and fought back the groans of pain. "He won't kill me."

"Doesn't look like that from here." Bonnie let out a long groan as the pain worsened, and immediately, Damon took a half-step forward as he realized the real risk of Bonnie being in danger. "Hey! Bonnie! Whoa, hey, guys. Stop!"

Kai released Bonnie, but not on Damon's commands. Bonnie jerked her arms back to her sides and she took a moment to regain her breath, all while comprehending what was going on through her head. Words, she realized. Words from Kai's head as he tried to steal her magic. But he wasn't stealing her magic at all, was he? He was looking for something. He was looking for a spell; _the _spell, to be exact.

"He doesn't know the spell," Bonnie determined aloud as she and Kai stood at an impasse, inches away from each other. Kai looked at her and locked his jaw as she triumphantly continued. "Which means...we don't need him." He inhaled sharply, watching closely as she suddenly flicked her wrist up and shouted, "Motus!"

"No! No! Bonnie!" Damon shouted as he watched the pickaxe a few feet away from him fly up and hit Kai right in the chest. The psychopathic Parker dropped to the ground, blood dripping out of the side of his mouth as he laid on the ground, dead. Damon was far from pleased. But yet, he reached forward and tapped her twice on the shoulder, somewhat out of sarcasm, as he turned back to the hole he'd dug and muttered sourly, "Great work, Bonnie."

As the eclipse approached closer with the passing hours, Damon and Bonnie were still standing in the forest, Damon against a tree downing the Zima Kai had so graciously supplied and Bonnie sitting on the mound of dirt Damon had pulled up from the ground while flicking through her grandmother's Grimoire.

"Mm! Mm-mm! Mm!" the vampire moaned dramatically.

"Can you...stop?" Bonnie demanded. "Let me concentrate?"

"On the bright side, this stuff's not so bad. It's fruity _and _fizzy!"

"Damon, I'm working on something."

He ignored her. "On the not-so-bright side, is your intelligence. Because you took the only chance of us getting out of here and turned him into a giant..." Damon took a moment to think of the correct term, looking down at the psychopath with enigmatic one-liners roaming around in his head. At last, he settled on the weak, "douche-kebab."

"Think about it, Damon: what prison gives an inmate a key?"

"Technically, Cass had the Ascendant," Damon pointed out, but then paused for a moment. "Wait, was that a trick question? Or is this stuff actually starting to kick in?"

"Even though Cass wasn't meant to be in here, she still had it, which meant that Kai would've had it if she weren't here to keep it from him," Bonnie pointed out. Damon shrugged in semi-agreement. "I think the Gemini Coven used a Bennett spell to create this place. What if that's why my Grams sent me here?"

"This is the face I make when I don't understand you." Damon crossed his eyes and made the most ridiculous face he could possibly make, causing Bonnie to roll her eyes and let out a deep sigh, ignoring Damon's childishness as she tried to decipher the secret of the Ascendant in her hand.

"You know, the last thing my Grams said to me...was to stay strong. What if that was her way of telling me I had the power to get out? I have the Ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from...plus, a burning desire to get away from you!"

Damon frowned at her, but Bonnie only smiled. Then, as a moment passed, she held up the Ascendant in her palm and remembered a spell that she realized might be the one to get them out. With closed eyes, she chanted the spell under her breath, and was taken away when the Ascendant moved in her palm, its arms spreading further away from its center. Bonnie set down the Grimoire and hurriedly moved over to Damon, who had eyes just as wide as hers.

"That's why Kai wouldn't kill me!" she declared. "He needed a Bennett. I was his only way out of here."

The vampire stared down at the Ascendant in wonder, a small sliver of hope coming back to him as he noticed the Ascendant's shift with Bonnie's spell. But in another moment, Bonnie had turned on her heel and walked back to the pile of dirt he had dug up, and as she left his side, he shook his head.

"Whoa. Where are you going?"

"Home." She smiled. "You coming?"

Damon watched as Bonnie moved to drop down into the tunnels, and as she did, Damon looked up at the sky, where the eclipse was merely an hour away from happening. Then, he realized: Cassandra. What would happen if she didn't make it? Would the Ascendant stay? Would she be able to get out, herself?

But at that moment, he couldn't let himself care. He had people to go home to, and she chose to stay behind. However, that didn't stop the furthest part of his mind from preying—hoping—that she made it back in time.

xxx

"We should wait, shouldn't we?" Bonnie asked nervously as she stood in the center of the tunnel and watched as the eclipse above showed that it was minutes away. Damon sipped Kai's Zima bottle and said nothing as the witch fretted. "Maybe until tomorrow? Until Cass comes back? I don't feel right leaving her behind."

"She went to get her powers." Damon gulped and nodded at Bonnie slowly. "She'll find a way out of here. She told me herself that her magic is strong enough to cheat its way around the spell."

"You're sure?"

"I want to go home, Bonnie," the vampire admitted softly from his dark corner. "So...let's go home."

Bonnie slowly nodded, realizing that Damon was right, and she looked up to see the eclipse getting nearer. With another assuring nod, she grabbed the Ascendant in her hand tightly and used its edges to make a deep incision in her hand, thus drawing blood from her palm. Squeezing her hand into a fist, she let the blood flow onto the Ascendant and took a deep breath.

"Okay." She looked up at the sky and back at Damon, who nodded to her to continue. Bonnie began the spell in a low tone and watched as the Ascendant spread, indicating its readiness to take them back to the present. Damon watched the device, knowing that home was just on the other side. After four months of agony, of pain, of guilt, it would finally be over. Bonnie looked at him with a smile. "It's time, Damon."

Damon rubbed his hands together, tossed the Zima bottle aside, and stepped out of the dark corner over to the circle of light at the bottom of the tunnel. "All right! Let's get awkward." They both smiled, and he reached forward and took Bonnie's hand, touching the Ascendant. "Like this?"

"Yeah."

The vampire sighed. "I'm sure there are about a billion people you'd rather be here with."

Bonnie watched Damon as he made the salty comment, but with a cute smile, Bonnie whispered, "Not exactly."

Damon looked up at her, pleasantly surprised, and they both smiled at each other for the first time, both of them ready to go home, changed from their experiences together every day for four months. It was different, the air between them. No longer Bonnie Bennett and Damon Salvatore, the witch and the vampire. Now, it was like...like they were almost..._friends_.

"Let's go—ahh!"

Suddenly, the Ascendant was ripped out of their hands as an arrow flew at Bonnie and hit her right in the stomach, forcing her back to the ground. Blood spilled out of the wound and Damon turned around to see Kai standing with a crossbow, a frown upon his lips.

"Forgetting someone?" Damon swallowed thickly. "Did you really think I hadn't tried to kill myself before? Because I had. Lots of times. Lots of ways. Killed Cassie, too, more than I can count. She surprised me, though. Managed to get a few ups on me here and there." Damon's eyes found the Ascendant on the ground, but Kai already knew what the vampire was thinking before he thought it. "Grab that and the next arrow goes in her heart. Your choice."

But it wasn't worth it. Bonnie was dying, just a few feet away from him. If he didn't help her, she would die, and if he grabbed the Ascendant, she would still die. So he turned away from the Ascendant and flitted over to Bonnie, ripped the arrow out of her stomach, and bit into his wrist to feed her his blood. He didn't get that far, however, because they both witnessed Kai bend forward for the Ascendant, which was now ready and willing to take the first participant home. Bonnie shouted, and Damon flashed over to Kai to stop him, the Ascendant flying across the tunnel and over closer to Bonnie. Damon's hands came up and wrapped around Kai's throat, but unfortunately, it left the rest of him exposed. Kai used an arrow in his hand that he was prepared to put into Bonnie and instead thrust it into Damon's chest, causing the vampire extreme discomfort. Bonnie, who spotted the Ascendant a few feet away from her, desperately clawed her way over to it, despite the pain in her stomach from the wound that was left unhealed.

And then, suddenly, Kai and Damon were broken apart, and Bonnie looked up, surprised, to see Cassandra run over to Damon and yank the arrow out of his stomach. He groaned from the pain, but once it was out, his skin began to heal.

"You made it," Damon breathed out. She nodded at him.

"I made it."

"Oh, look at this! What a wonderful reunion!" Kai got to his feet and stared at his sister with heated eyes. "You've got some nerve, Cassie, coming back now. Let me guess, you have your magic back?"

She straightened and looked him in the eye. Bonnie, meanwhile, was squirming over to grab the Ascendant without Kai noticing. "Yes, Malachai, I have my magic back. And there's no way in hell you're getting out of here."

"We'll see about that."

Then he lunged and tackled her to the ground. She was about to use his magic when he came up and wrapped his hands around her throat, squeezing as hard as he could. She gasped and kicked for air, trying to use her magic, but not focused enough for it. Then, Damon came up behind Kai and, using his vampire strength, forced the man-child off of his sister, but not before Kai could reach over and grab the arrow that he'd used before. This time, he had it right in Damon's neck, and Damon let out a cry in pain. Kai lifted them both upright and moved him and Damon over to the boulder beside the circle of light, digging the arrow into his neck. Cassandra lifted herself from the ground and, making eye contact with Bonnie, helped her by flicking her wrist again and letting the Ascendant float right into Bonnie's palm. Bonnie let out a sigh of relief, but she could feel the pain in her stomach. She wouldn't make it.

Cassandra turned sharply around and walked over to Kai, where she angrily swept her hand to the side and sent Kai flying across the room. Damon ripped the arrow out of his neck and Cassandra grabbed his hand, pulling him into the circle of light. But Kai was already up on his feet, so they had to act fast. Cassandra looked over at Bonnie with widened eyes.

"Bonnie! Come on! We need to get out of here!"

"I'm...not gonna make it," Bonnie choked out, realizing that she didn't have enough power to get up on her own. Cassandra opened her mouth, but Bonnie shook her head and looked at Damon and Cassandra seriously. "But you two are."

"Bonnie—"

"Don't!" they all heard Kai yell and watched as he made a run for it.

Bonnie turned her eyes sharply at him and screamed, "Motus!", causing him to blow back yet again. Then, in an instant, as the eclipse was coming to an end, Bonnie moved the Ascendant right into Cassandra and Damon's hands, and the two of them didn't realize what was happening until it happened.

"No!" Damon shouted as he looked down at Bonnie. Cassandra whipped around. "No!"

But the two, despite their protests, were drawn away in the white light, left only to hear Kai's piercing scream as they left the 1994 prison world.

xxx

Her eyes opened to her surroundings: the sight of the black night. Her breath hitched, but she had no idea her breathing pattern had spiked so drastically. Her memories were a blur of years and years upon the evilness of her brother, the memories of her new friends, and the tragic events that had led her back to where she had woken. All of the years of solitude, of running, washed over her mind like a tidal wave, and as she looked around, she remembered where she was.

She sat up straight, her nails digging hard into the ground. She looked around cautiously with wide, confused eyes. She could feel the adrenaline pulsing through her body, throbbing alongside of the untouched magic in her pocket that itched free of its host, the Italian Lire. She kept a firm grasp on the dirt beneath her fingertips, soil of the 21st century.

And when she stood up and looked around, she knew exactly where she was. She knew exactly what had happened. She knew exactly what to do next.

Cassandra Parker was finally, after two decades, home.

* * *

**So it's been a while since my last update, so I apologize for the delay. But as always, thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**thisdarkpassenger: **Thank you! sorry for the wait but here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!

**LMarie99: **Thank you! I wish it had been sooner but unfortuantely it's been like three months.

**WickedlyMinx: **Well here you go! Hope it was worth the wait.

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Yeah Damon's a sweetheart like that :P Cass and Damon's relationship is gonna get even better as we go on in the next few episodes now that they're in the present which is gonna be a lot of fun. Thanks for the review!

**HALEBTRASH: **I ship Damon and Cass hella hard too. Honestly, they're one of my favorite couples, which is why I got them together so quickly. Thanks for the review! More Damon/Cass moments coming up in the next few chapters.

**RHatch89: **Thank you! Haha, they really are. Yeah, they are pretty passionate but as we move forward, we'll be able to see more of a deeper relationship form that's just completely different than Delena's, and even Cassandra will point it out herself. Like Bonnie said, Damon and Cass make sense. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Here's another chapter! Thank you! More twists and turns to come.

**PrincessMagic: **Thanks!

**The-Effulgent-One: **Wish granted! Now the challenge will be getting Bonnie back.

**Guest: **Yeah, sorry for the wait, but here's the chapter! Hope you liked it!

**LondonaLozzy: **Thank you! Yeah, I know what you mean. I try to shake things up a bit so I have some stories that start in earlier seasons and some that start halfway just so that things don't get 'samey, samey' like you said. I have a lot more planned so stick around! Here's the update! Hope you liked it!

**Guest: **Here you go!

**IrinaPetrova: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**beth: **Sorry for the wait, but here it is!

**Guest: **Update. Check.

**klandgraf2007: **Well I hope you liked this chapter! Yeah, Cass and Damon have an interesting dynamic. It's going to get real interesting real soon, especially with Elena in the mix. Though, the next chapter will not have any Cass/Damon moments until the end, I believe; but I might also stretch that to the chapter after that. It depends, but we'll see. Thanks for reviewing!

**mary: **Here's the update!

**geekspec: **Thank you! I'm glad to hear that! Yeah, their relationship is tricky, and it's only gonna develop more from here. He definitely knows that she's growing on him, but that's kinda gonna slip his mind when he's with Elena but then he'll be reminded of how much he really cares about Cassandra when they're alone and all he can focus on is her. Yeah, that is true! Cassandra's a special one. Here's the update! Sorry for the wait. Thanks for the review! :)

**piper: **Here's the update! Though I can't go much faster because of AP classes but I'll try. We'll see how it turns out. Hope you liked this chapter!


	9. Cassie?

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

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**Chapter 8**

**Cassie?**

xxx

Her knuckles taut, she rapped on the door of her home three times, pausing briefly between each of them. It had been so long, would anyone even be there? She knew there was still a cloaking spell on the house, that was obvious. Her father, the paranoid maniac that he was, wouldn't risk being exposed to the outside world, especially not after Malachai. She could feel the magic bouncing off of the house as she stood on the doorstep, patiently waiting for it to open. As she stood there, she looked down at her hair and reached up, attempting to rid the crusted dirt that was caked into her strands. Just as she put her guard down and relaxed for two seconds while trying to fix herself up for her father, the door suddenly swung open.

"Who—?" Joshua Parker answered the door, stopping cold as he saw his daughter on the doorstep. Cassandra froze and observed her father go shell-shocked, his breath taken away when he saw the ghost of his child standing a few feet away from him. There were no words for the first moment, but then Cassandra swallowed and tried to smile at him.

"Hi, Dad," she said slowly, cautiously watching his reaction. Joshua was slow in coming up with a response, so she took a deep breath and added, "Yeah. I know. I'm not really sure what to say, either. But can I come in? I could really use a second to wash up."

"I...I..." Joshua stuttered for a moment before finally stepping aside for her without saying a word. Cassandra nodded to him thankfully, walking into the home that she grew up in. The bloodstains on the wall had been scrubbed off since the last time she'd been in her home, and there was modern, contemporary furniture around the house—things that she had never seen before. Cassandra gulped, trying to wrap her head around the future. She'd jumped ahead twenty years, it was understandable.

"The bathroom is—"

"I know where it is," she said softly as her father moved around, still eyeing her curiously, as if she were some demon sent from hell to torment him. Straightening, she moved over to the other hallway and opened the door to the bathroom, where she stood over the sink for a few moments to collect her thoughts. Well, what did she think would happen? Her father would welcome her with open arms? He was the one that put her in that hell, not that it was really his choice. Still, she didn't know what she expected from him. She didn't know what she expected from anything anymore. She was in Portland where she'd gotten sent to the prison world, that meant that Damon was most likely in Mystic Falls where he and Bonnie had been sent to that life as well. Even if she wanted to make an escape, she wouldn't know what to do.

After washing her face and scrubbing some of the grime off her hands and in her hair quickly, Cassandra stepped out of the bathroom to find her father pacing in front of the door. She closed it carefully and stepped forward in the living room, sitting down on one of the new couches, her head pounding. Joshua stopped and stared at her, shaking his head.

"How are you here right now? Unless you're not really here."

"Trust me, I'm here." Cassandra scoffed and leaned over on her knees. "I'm here because...because something happened a few months ago. Other people came into the prison world. One of them was a...was a Bennett Witch."

Joshua's eyes widened. "No."

"D-Don't freak out, okay?" She held up a hand and lifted herself from the couch, her hand shaking. "Kai's not here. He's trapped in there still."

"And the witch?"

"Um, she's..." Cassandra swallowed and hung her head. "Probably dead right now, I don't know. She was hurt pretty badly before we got out—"

"We?" Joshua repeated, crossing his arms over his chest, almost as if he were interrogating her. Cassandra sighed.

"It's complicated and, to be honest, not exactly relevant." She nodded at him. "The important part is, Kai's not with me. He's still there. I promise."

Joshua shook his head. "No. No, if Kai is in that prison world with a Bennett Witch—"

"You know..." Cassandra raised a very heavy breath in her chest as she scoffed at her father. "When I thought about getting out of that hellhole, this wasn't exactly what I was expecting that was waiting for me on the other side. Aren't you the least bit happy to see me after all these years, Dad?"

He paused, staring at his daughter for a moment or two. Cassandra waited, practically tapping her foot at him impatiently. As more time passed, she grew more and more disappointed, and finally, after a minute or so, Joshua sighed.

"Of course I am. Of course." He took a half-step forward, almost as if to hug her, but then he stopped short in his tracks as if it were a bad idea. Cassandra waited for him to make the next move, watching as he made the situation more painfully awkward that it should've been. "I just...don't know what to do, Cassandra. You being here is proof that Malachai has an opportunity to escape."

She shook her head. "I don't think that he can."

"But you're not sure?" he clarified. Cass was quiet, causing her dad to nod in confirmation of his statement. She could see his hands shake for a moment before he started to walk towards the doorway between the living room and another room. "Okay. Okay, stay right here. We're gonna do a spell."

"Dad—"

"Stay here, Cassandra."

Cass watched as her father fled the room to get something, but she was conflicted. After turning away from the other doorway, refusing to watch after her father for a second longer, Cassandra spotted something in the corner of the room. It was a desk, one that she used to play with all the time before she was shipped off to boarding school. She used to hide things in the desk, things where no one could find them. Granted, those hiding spots were somewhat crafty at best, but she mostly just taped weird notes underneath the surface of the table as if waiting for someone to find them and read all of the 'funny' things she wrote on them. It reminded her of a much simpler time.

She walked over to the desk, feeling nostalgic. Her hands glided underneath the wooden top of the desk, and she could feel the small slips of papers tucked into the cracks. Then, as she ran her hand along something else, she felt that it was too big. It was taped underneath the desk, loosely, but it was too large to be one of the slips of paper she wrote notes on. Curious, she curled her fingers around the edges and tore it off of the surface, bringing it up to eye level. It was then when she remembered what it was.

A small photo, somewhat like a Polaroid, was staring her right in the face, reminding her of something she promised to herself a long time ago. Something that she vowed to do the moment she got out of that hell. Her hand curled around the picture and she looked around. One part of her was angry at her father; honestly, what kind of dad was barely even happy to see his own daughter after twenty years of her being trapped in a prison world? She didn't do anything wrong, she had the right to be back in the present. But on the other hand, she could see where he was coming from. He was just as worried about Malachai getting out as she was.

But did that make it right? Could she not escape her psychopathic brother for two whole minutes to reunite with her father? It seemed hardly fair.

So as she heard Joshua's footsteps as he hurried down the stairs, she had to make a quick decision. Was it right of her to stay? Or was it completely unnecessary to abide by her father's rules any longer after what was done to her? She could hear him approaching faster, and the moment he entered the living room, she decided.

"Cassandra—" Joshua stopped short as he looked around the room to find it empty, his eyes going wide. He looked all around him, but there was no one to be find. "No! Cassandra?"

Cassandra watched her father from behind the desk, her magic shielding her with an invisibility cloak. She swallowed thickly.

"Sorry Dad." Her head hung as she opened her palm and stared at the picturesque photo of her, smiling like an innocent teenager, accompanied by a young teenage boy smiling equally as joyfully. Cassandra took a deep breath. "I have a promise to keep."

xxx

To be completely frank, she had no fucking idea where to start.

The world was full of people. People that looked alike, people that had the same names, people that had similar names, people that had _changed _their names from their original names...it was too much. Cassandra sat in a car she had hot-wired to start, staring down at a huge, outdated phonebook she had taken from a gas station off of the highway. There were at least ten Ethan Davenports in Oregon alone, and that was just to start with. She was no longer in the prison world—there were highways with other cars and too many people and places to sort through. How did she know that he was even alive to begin with?

Cassandra leaned against the steering wheel to try and calm herself. Before she did anything, before she even thought about contacting Damon and driving back to Mystic Falls, she had to do this. It wasn't an option for her. He deserved to know the truth—and she deserved to be able to tell it.

Frustrated, she chucked the phone book to the side and grabbed the photo from her pocket, along with the small Italian lira that contained all of her untouched, concentrated magic that had just been darkening over time. With a deep breath, she pressed the lira to the photo and her breathing hitched as she could feel the magic, the uncontrolled substance, take over her body completely, consuming her into a vision. A great big house in the middle of the suburbs...sprinklers nurturing a mint green grass lawn...a UPS carrier dropping off a package...and then the address: 5414 Chrysler Lane, Ross, CA 94957

Cass lifted her hands off the lira and the photograph, causing it to fall in her lap as she reeled over the powerful surge of power running through her. It died out eventually, of course, because she didn't hold onto any of that magic, but it was so powerful, it nearly overthrew her. After collecting herself, she slipped the lira and the photograph back where she had pulled them from and took a moment to think.

The next thing she knew, she was rifling through the glove compartment for a map. Maybe she could find it from there, she thought, but instead of a map, all she found was a beaten-up, neglected square box with a prong on the back that looked like a suction cup. She stared at it in wonder and looked around the edges. She found an "on" button and watched as she screen glowed to life, challenging the dust on the screen. She jumped back, confused at the phenomenon, but watched as there was a prompt on the screen, asking for directions. She tapped the screen and it turned, giving her an electronic keyboard and a prompt for a house number. Straightening in her seat, she complied with the request, entering the same address she had seen on the package delivered to the house the picture had sent her to. After many times hitting the "enter" button, she was finally finished entering the address, only to be scared when the GPS started to talk to her.

_"Drive 0.5 miles, then turn right." _

She stared at the screen, noticing the sidebar. It said that it was 636 miles to her destination. She looked at the clock on the dashboard of the car she had stolen to see that it was almost midnight. If she drove then, she would get there in ten hours, it said. Her ETA was 9:49AM the next day. Cass looked over the steering wheel and debated for a moment. Should she or shouldn't she?

After a second of debating, she realized that this was something she couldn't stop. This was something she could not go back on. So she set the weird device in the cup holder of the car and began to drive.

xxx

_11:30AM_

Fucking traffic.

Cass let out a relieved, thankful sigh as she finally came upon the house she was looking for. The stupid talking device beside her, as unhelpful as it was, decided to announce, "_You have arrived at your destination!", _and it only caused Cassandra to get even madder at the device and shove it back in the glove compartment when she stopped the car at the curb. Nearly eleven hours she'd been driving and she was hungry, she had to use the restroom, and she was practically dying of thirst, since her last rest stop was at 6AM. But regardless, she took a moment to herself in the driver's seat, relaxing for just a moment as she rubbed her eyes rid of the sleep she had been deprived of.

But it was time. Time to face the music. Time to tell Ethan what happened and time to finally explain herself after two whole decades. She didn't know what had become of him since her departure from their world, but she hoped that he had done something with his life. From the looks of it, he hadn't done too bad.

She climbed out of the car, her hands practically shaking. Still, she held herself high and moved towards the driveway of the affluent home. But just as she had crossed the street to the curb before Ethan's driveway, she saw the front door of the home open. Her heart stopped as she watched Ethan walk out. He was different, that was for sure, but she expected that. The years agreed with him, however. He stepped out of the house with a suit and tie, a coffee cup in one hand and a briefcase in another. He nearly got two steps before the door opened again, and that's when Cass realized that under no circumstances had her absence affected him.

A tall, olive-skinned blonde stepped out of the house with two children tugging on her fingertips. The blonde stopped Ethan in his tracks with his name and he turned around to accept a small box that Cassandra assumed was a phone, as Damon and Bonnie had explained to her once. Ethan slipped it into his pocket and the tall, leggy blonde leaned down and kissed him on the mouth quickly just as the children walked out and hugged Ethan tightly. He smiled down at them and Cassandra watched, heartbroken, as the blonde smiled and reigned her kids into the affluent home and shut the door. Ethan walked away from the front step towards his car, presumably to go to work. Cassandra just stood at the end of the driveway, frozen, but the moment she saw Ethan's eyes lock with hers, she widened her own and whipped around, suddenly walking into the middle of the street, despite the luxury mini-van that nearly trampled her over. Her legs were shaking as she rushed over to her stolen vehicle and climbed inside, about ready to make a getaway.

Instead, life surprised her.

Ethan stepped in front of her car, his eyes wide as if he'd seen a ghost. It seemed to be a recurring theme, she realized, though it wasn't far off. She was, on some level, practically a ghost.

Cassandra sighed in her seat. _Shit, _she thought as she watched him narrow his eyes at her through the windshield, and unfortunately for her, the windows weren't tinted like she'd seen some cars. He saw her clearly, though she didn't doubt that he still didn't understand how it was her that he was seeing. Ethan walked around the car to the driver's side and Cassandra, having no other choice, stepped out of the vehicle having been made. She stared at him as she lifted herself from the car and stared at him over the door she was about to close. His mouth nearly dropped open.

"Cassie?" he whispered, amazed.

Cass's heart nearly fell apart. _Cassie. _Every time Kai'd called her that, it reminded her of Ethan, which was why she hated it so much. The name just reminded her of all the terrible times she'd spend in that hellhole.

"I...really shouldn't be here right now." She scoffed, looking back at the house where she had seen what she could only assume to be his wife and his children. "I-I'm sorry."

"How the hell...how the hell are you alive?" He stepped closer and noted her appearance. "How do you still...still look so..."

"Eighteen?" Cassandra filled in with a small laugh. "That might have something to do with the fact that I've been frozen in time for the past twenty years."

"I...don't understand."

"You don't have to." She gave him a soft smile. "I think I'm gonna go now. I'm sorry."

"No!" He stepped forward and stopped her from opening the car door that she had shut. She looked back up at him, waiting for him to speak. She could tell he couldn't come up with words, his mouth dry as he licked them so he could speak. "I want to know what happened."

Cass raised a sigh. "Look, I don't really want to ruin this whole...perfect life you have. Just forget that you saw me."

"Cassie," he scolded, causing her to look up at him again, this time more frustrated than before. He stepped closer and shook his head. "I think I deserve to know what happened. You _owe _it to me to tell me what happened."

She frowned, but she knew he was right. After all, that was what she was there for in the first place.

He took her to a coffee shop a few miles away from his home. A 'Starbucks', apparently. Though it didn't seem much like a Starbucks...it was all modernized and things of that nature. They sat outside in the perfect California weather, the sun looming over them as it reached high noon. Ethan shrugged.

"I'm assuming that this obviously has to do with magic," he observed. She nodded. "And your psycho brother? The one that murdered your family?"

"You know about that?"

"It was hard not to. It was in all the papers back then." Cassandra took a small sip of her coffee and avoided his eyes. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. "He didn't get a chance to. My parents were picking me up from the airport that night, remember?" Ethan nodded and she leaned forward, running a hand through her hair. "He...he made me go with him to...to a prison world. An alternate dimension where no one existed, where Kai could wallow in an eternal misery of solitude. But when he took me, no one did anything to stop him. It wasn't my choice." Cassandra looked up at him involuntarily. "I _promise _I was going to come back."

He stared, but didn't say anything. It was almost as if he wasn't saying anything on purpose, like he was biting back what he really wanted to say. Eventually, he cleared his throat and inquired, "What happened there? In this...prison world?"

She traced her finger around the rim of the coffee cup she had in her hand, but she didn't answer the question. What was the point? What would she gain out of telling him her misery? Empathy? Pity? She didn't want any of that. There was no point in him pitying her for something that was out of her control.

Cass looked up at him sharply. "So the blonde? The kids? I'm assuming this isn't a big misunderstanding and she's really your secret sister who likes to kiss you on the mouth?"

Ethan was silent for a while, but even before he admitted to it by hanging his head, she knew what she was saying was right. They were quiet for a long time, but finally, Ethan looked up at her and said in a soft voice, "It was twenty years, Cassie."

"I know." She gave him a soft smile. "I didn't expect you to wait. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. But I would like to know something." He waited as she looked into his eyes seriously, cherishing the moment for a while before finally asking lightly, "Are you...are you happy?"

He swallowed, but it wasn't a tough question. She didn't mean to make him question his entire life, she just wanted to know honestly. But like before, even without the admission, she knew already. She knew that her absence had no effect. She didn't want there to be.

So she lifted herself from the chair, deciding to leave. Ethan jumped up and stopped her. "Where are you going?"

"Ethan, you're...what, thirty-nine now?" Cass scoffed. "I'm still eighteen. It was twenty years ago, I realize that. I don't know what I wanted when I came here, I just...after seeing my father this morning, I wanted to feel like nothing had changed since I left. But it has. Everything has...has changed. There's weird box devices in cars that can tell you where to go and there are...phones and Google and...and I can't be here anymore. I have somewhere else to go."

"Cassie!" he tried, but she walked out of his sight, and he didn't follow her. He wasn't exactly sure why, and she wasn't exactly sure why she walked away, but they both knew, subconsciously, that it was for the best. Ethan gave a sigh of defeat and Cassandra merely just climbed into her car and left the Starbucks parking lot.

xxx

From Ross to Mystic Falls was a drive that Cassandra was not willing to make again. Instead, she decided to go to the airport, where she purchased a ticket with spare cash she had found in the car she had stolen. Truth be told, she was ashamed of herself for stealing a car, but what else could she do?

The plane ride was about 7 hours, most of which she had slept for. When she had gotten to Richmond, she took a train to Whitmore College, where Damon and Bonnie had mentioned multiple times during their weekly lectures on what the real world was like. It didn't help much in preparing her for her adventure, but it certainly did help telling her where she needed to go.

When she arrived at the Whitmore College train station, she realized she was in the middle of the college town, which was extremely convenient. Most likely, the train was for the college students looking to head into the city at a convenience, and she didn't blame them. As she walked the sidewalks of Whitmore College, trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do to find Damon from then on, she finally came in front of a public facility, one that had a lot of people inside. Maybe one of them knew about Damon, Elena, and the lot of them, she thought. Going inside, she also realized that she needed food. Her stomach growled, but she had limited capital left. She would have to find Damon soon.

There were menus at the bar that she spotted, so she started to walk towards it. Just as she did, someone suddenly spun around after downing a shot and accidentally spun into her, nearly knocking her over.

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!" the guy apologized, trying to steady her. "I didn't see you."

"It's...fine," she muttered as she stabilized her body and tried to ignore the light-headedness from the lack of food in her stomach. But when she looked up at the guy that had stopped her, she instantly recognized her. She gasped, causing him to knot his eyebrows. She couldn't help herself, she let out yet another sigh of utter relief. "Oh, thank the fucking lord."

"Excuse me?"

"You're Stefan, right?" she breathed happily. He looked at her, surprised. "Stefan Salvatore? Damon's brother? I...could really use some food right now."

Sure enough, it was Stefan; and he stared down at the tiny, dark-haired girl with nothing but confusion.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**thisdarkpassenger: **Hahaha nope not dreaming! But yeah it was a long time so I don't blame you. Thank you! Drama will start up next chapter, this was more of just exploring Cassandra's past. Thanks for the review!

**queen ares: **Thank you!

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**jordanjanellejoy: **Thanks! Yep, it'll definitely get interesting from here.

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thank you! She will...eventually.

**HALEBTRASH: **Ew no. I have characters that like Elena because Elena didn't really do anything to them but Cass is too smart for that. She's sort of like a challenger when it comes to Damon and Elena's relationship because she'll play devil's advocate a lot and will make Damon really question his relationship with Elena and how valid it really is. Elena will eventually, yes, learn that there is something going on with Damon and Cass but I don't think she'll notice all that soon.

**LMarie99: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**HippieLove1312: **Well here you go! There will definitely be more of them in the future. Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **I know right! Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **So you're talking about 6x11 and 6x22, right? So for 6x11, I'll say that Cass is going to be taken by Kai, yes, but it'll be a lot different than with Elena just because Kai and Cass have this very complex relationship and Kai is sort of obsessed with her power so it will be a very interesting interaction. As for 6x22, I think I've got a pretty good idea what's going to happen at the end but I'm not entirely sure so I can't give a definite answer right now. Thank you for the review! Here's the update!

**GoingClassic: **Haha thanks! Yes, they really are ugh.

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**piper: **Here's the update!


	10. We're Pathetic

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**We're Pathetic**

xxx

Cass shifted uncomfortably under the uncomfortably hard stare from Stefan, who was almost analyzing her for the truth just as his brother had back in the prison world. She could sense the judgement from across the table, albeit Stefan's methods were more subtle and less hostile towards her. Cass, who had scoffed down the food that Stefan graciously bought her, pushed the empty plate away from her and awkwardly tapped her fingers against the table, waiting for Stefan to say something. Or should she say something? As she was thinking about what to say, she could hear Stefan's voice that snapped her out of her internal debate.

"So you're Cass, I'm guessing?" Stefan asked her cautiously, still looking at the witch with a blank expression. Cassandra let out a relieved, yet shaken chuckle.

"Y-Yeah. That's me. Cassandra, but Damon likes to call me Cass. I don't really know why..." The dark-haired teenager trailed off as she saw Stefan's unamused face and realized that she was babbling. Cassandra cleared her throat. "Yeah. I'm Cass. What else did Damon tell you?"

"Not a lot. Just that you're the sister of the psychopath he had to escape from. Oh, and that you lied about it," Stefan noted sourly. She nodded, ashamed.

"Yeah, Kai. I-I wasn't on his side, believe me. The only reason I lied to Damon was because I knew that if he knew he would want to get out of the prison world and...and Kai has a way of getting what he wants." Cass took a deep breath and then smiled at Stefan sweetly. "I'm sorry, but...where exactly _is _Damon right now?"

"With Elena," the younger Salvatore told her, causing Cassandra's innocent smile to falter for just a moment. She reached forward and grabbed the Coca-Cola sitting on the table and cleared her throat again.

"Oh. Right." She took a long sip of the fizzy drink and then asked, "How long do you think that will take?"

Stefan shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's complicated right now."

"How complicated?" she inquired, but from the look on his face, she knew that it wasn't a good idea to be asking that question. Instead of waiting for whatever change of subject that was going to come out of Stefan's mouth, Cass lifted herself up from her chair as she set her drink back down on the table and looked around. "You know what, I'm, uh, I'm gonna go to the restroom. Where...?"

"Back corner."

"Thanks."

She nodded to him and walked through the sea of college students over to the restroom where Stefan had pointed her towards. Stefan, with a sigh, leaned down on the table and finished his own drink, his head reeling. Damon really hadn't spoken much about Cassandra, and that was a given in the midst of all the drama he was in for with Elena, who no longer remembered their relationship because of a stupid mistake Alaric had made a few weeks prior to Damon's return. On top of it, the day Damon had was so hectic that there wasn't much time to talk about his experiences in the prison world, what with getting kidnapped by Tripp Cooke and almost dragged across the town border. Stefan sighed, exhausted. It had been one hell of a day, indeed.

When Stefan heard the bell on the tavern door sound, alerting staff that someone had entered the facility, he looked up to surely enough find his brother walking in, his shoulders slumped, looking immensely disappointed, which could only amount to one thing: things with Elena didn't go as planned. Stefan straightened and watched as Damon made his way over to his table.

"Hey—" he began, about to tell him about his visitor. Before he could, however, Damon exhaled heavily.

"I'm...exhausted, Stefan. I think I need to go sleep for a little while. I was going to, but then I realized...I have no idea where we live nowadays." Damon gave a sour chuckle. "How sad is that?"

"Damon—"

"You know, I might just go see Alaric in the hospital instead. Sleep there." Damon reached forward and pulled the glass of soda to his lips, but he didn't even realize it was soda before he drank it. He frowned. "Soda, brother? It's not like you have a low tolerance or anything."

"Damon, you should really listen to me—"

"I...can't, Stefan. The doom and gloom can wait until tomorrow. I just came back to tell you I'm gonna go to the hospital. I'll see you in the—"

"Damon?"

Damon, who had just turned on his heel to walk in the other direction back towards the door to do as he had said, turned again back to his brother to see Cass walk out from behind him, a relieved look on her face upon greeting Damon. Stefan watched as Damon froze for a few seconds before, like Cassandra, an overjoyed, relieved expression overwhelmed his face and he rushed forward, surprisingly, and pulled her into his arms. Cass, also very startled, only took a few moments to get over the surprise before she gripped him back tightly, almost afraid to let go. Damon sighed with half a chuckle.

"You don't know how happy I am to see you," he confessed. She scoffed.

"I think I have a pretty good idea." Cass and Damon pulled away, both taking a brief moment to take a breath. When the moment had passed, Damon shook his head.

"Where have you been?"

"Portland," she answered. Her eyes flickered to Stefan for a brief moment as she thought about where else she had gone, but she wasn't going to bring that up in front of Damon's brother. If she were being honest, she wasn't sure she wanted to bring it up to Damon himself, either. "Sorry it took me so long, I just...had a few things to take care of before I found you again. Is everything okay with you?"

Damon cocked an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Cass, again, looked over at Stefan. "Um, your brother said something about Elena...and complicated? Not really sure what that means, but..."

The dark-haired Salvatore frowned at his brother, the innocent bystander. "Well, Stefan can't keep anything to himself to save his life."

Stefan scowled. "I didn't think it was a secret—"

"It's fine. It's fine," Cass tried to end the argument, awkwardly shaking her head and raising a breath, surprised as she found it to be unusually tight, like she couldn't breathe. She shook it out of her mind and looked back at Damon with an again awkward laugh. "I didn't mean to bring it up, I just wanted to make sure you're okay. Um, so...I don't have a place to stay..."

"Yeah, neither do I, it seems." Damon scoffed and just jerked his head back at her. "Come with me. You and I can go catch some sleep at Alaric's place. I'll go see him at the hospital in the morning."

"Alaric?" she repeated. "I thought he was a, um, Original vampire, right? The one that came back from the dead when you and Bonnie were trapped on the Other Side? What is he doing at the hospital?"

He sighed at her and opened his mouth to tell her, but instead, he just settled upon: "It's a long story."

Damon and Cassandra left the bar afterwards, to Stefan's slight confusion, and Damon took her back to Alaric's place, assuming Stefan had somewhere else to stay, which he probably did. After a long day for the both of them (in Cassandra's case, two days), it was easy to just go to Alaric's campus house and straight to bed. To Cass's delight, there was a fully functioning shower in the teacher's room that, unlike the motel rooms she'd been spending her days in, didn't have a roach infestation and actually looked relatively clean. She took a long, hot shower before dressing down for the night and getting to bed. She had wanted Damon to take his friend's bed, but he essentially told her that she, looking like shit, needed a good night's rest on an actual mattress.

The problem was, ironically, that although she was dead tired, the more she wanted to sleep, she couldn't. There were no sounds of crying babies on an airplane to distract her, the bed was as comfortable as it could get, and she was finally in a place of rest, but still. It was as good as sleeping on the concrete floor of a prison cell; her body did not want to shut down for the night even though it begged her to give it rest. What was the problem? Hadn't she endured enough suffering for the past few days? Wasn't it time for her to just get at least eight hours of peaceful rest?

She couldn't. It wasn't that she didn't want to, she just physically could not. The strangeness of being back in a world with people around her, the paranoia that clouded her mind that Kai would get out of the prison world and hunt her down, the anxiety that sucked her in as she thought about the twenty years she spent in societal isolation prevented her from being able to sleep. She'd read several medical journals and research books in that hell, and from the looks of it, she knew it was something having to do with post-traumatic stress disorder. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could think about was Kai being right next to her, waiting and watching, planning his next move.

It was hopeless. She would die of exhaustion, and that was final.

Frustrated, Cass turned onto her back and ran a hand through her hair with a groan as she looked up at the ceiling. Then, she heard the door of her room open and, in the light that she made sure was left on in the bathroom (she'd always had a fear of the dark), she could see Damon's dimly lit face. She knew he could hear her heartbeat speed up, confused and slightly alarmed at what he was doing in her room, but all he did was sigh, almost exhaustedly, as he laid down on the bed over the covers, his back firmly on the mattress like her. She realized, then, that he was with her because he had the exact same problem.

"We're pathetic," Cass told him with an unimpressed mumble.

"We're pathetic," he agreed.

xxx

Sometime during the night, though Cass wasn't really sure when, she had fallen asleep and Damon shortly afterwards. A few hours later, she woke up to find the bed empty, as she expected it would be. Still half-asleep, most likely because of the fact that she had not gotten the 8 hours she wanted but rather around 6 instead, she dragged her feet through to the kitchen, where Damon was making pancakes on Alaric's tiny stove.

"Mornin' Shakespeare," he chimed as he flipped a pancake onto a plate already holding one, making it a stack. Cassandra grumbled something along the lines of a 'good morning' as Damon passed her the plate. "Eat up. We've got to get to the hospital."

She rubbed her eyes and sighed. "Why can't you go without me?"

"Well, I could." He shrugged. "But you have to meet Ric sooner or later. Oh, and right after, you and I need to go get you some real clothes. You can wear something of mine for now."

Cass looked up at him with wide eyes. "Oh, shit. I completely forgot about clothes."

Damon smiled. "Clothes are pretty important. Sometimes, anyways."

She rolled her eyes and ate a piece of her pancakes, which actually didn't suck. "Ha ha. So funny. I'm so stupid, I could've grabbed a bunch of things at my old house. Well, that's if my dad still has my stuff..." Cass pursed her lips and then retracted, "Nope, never mind. I doubt he even kept that stuff."

"You saw your dad?"

"Yup."

He looked over his shoulder as he flipped his own pancake in the pan over the stove. Cautiously, he asked, "Was it awkward?"

"Yup."

Damon watched as Cass's sour frown was exposed on her face as she hung her head and pushed around the pancake on her plate, thinking about it after he'd brought it up. For a moment, things were silent, but Damon then looked back at his own food and cleared his throat.

"Well, at least he still remembered you." They shared a glance, whereupon Damon added, "More or less?"

Cass smiled slightly, though still somber, but then inquired, "Wait, what do you mean 'at least he remembered you'? Did something happen when you got back?"

Damon didn't answer her. Instead, he just let out a sigh as he collected his pancakes onto a plate and walked over to a spot across the center island in Alaric's kitchen, where he took a fork and knife and began to cut into his pancake as he thought over his words. Cassandra watched, waiting, until he finally confessed what had happened.

"So...I told you that what happened to Alaric was a long story, right?" Cass nodded. "Well, long story short, Alaric turned back into a human. Don't ask...it happened."

"So because he turned back into a human he forgot about you or something?"

The vampire let out a frustrated breath. "Alaric compelled Elena a few weeks ago to forget our relationship. So, basically, she doesn't remember anything we've been through and Alaric isn't a vampire anymore to compel it back. She was the one who forgot, not Alaric." Cassandra was quiet and only observed as Damon ate his pancakes, avoiding her stare. It took a moment, but finally, Damon looked up at her and shrugged. "What?"

"Nothing." Cass dropped her eyes as she thought about Damon's situation, biting her lip to refrain from saying anything. She could see Damon open his mouth and, as she sensed he was about to ask again, she lifted herself from the chair at the isle and pushed her plate away. "Um, I'm gonna go get dressed so we can go to the hospital. Thanks for the breakfast."

He watched as she gave him a soft smile and walked back to the bedroom to get ready, and for a moment, Damon thought about her lack of response, but brushed it off and continued eating his pancakes.

An hour or so later, Damon and Cassandra showed up at the hospital, where Damon introduced the 18-year-old to his best friend, who wasn't on such good terms with Damon at the moment, seeing as Alaric's existence was the reason Elena still didn't remember all the good things he had done over the past years. Cassandra stuck around for a while, listening to Damon and Alaric's awkward conversation as Damon bitterly threw shade at his friend for everything that had happened, but she ended up leaving the hospital room for about half an hour as she scowered the hospital for food. When she returned, she found that Alaric and Damon weren't the only ones in the hospital room.

"I don't know what the hell it is, but I'm just so hungry all the time! The food here is much better than that other shi..." Cass trailed off as she came to a halt, her body freezing when she saw yet another one of her family members standing less than four feet away from her. The doctor herself stood in shock. "Oh, my God. Josette?"

"Cassandra," Jo breathed out, confused. Damon and Alaric both looked at them, raising their eyebrows in confusion.

"You know her?" Damon inquired. Cassandra looked back at him for a moment before looking over at Jo, still reeling over how much older Jo had gotten since the last time they had seen each other.

"Yeah, she's—"

"Her friend." Jo cut Cass off, spinning around to look at Damon and Alaric as she blatantly lied, but she lied so well that it was hardly detectable. "Cassandra and I were friends in school a _long _time ago. Um, Cassandra, come outside with me?"

Jo turned around and grabbed Cassandra by her arm to take her out, and Cassandra quickly tossed Damon the unopened granola bar he'd asked for. As they walked out of the room, Damon shrugged and turned back to Alaric to continue with his shaming techniques while the sisters spoke outside.

"How are you here right now?" Jo asked, whispering quietly as she pulled Cassandra to a stop in front of the hospital room's window. Cassandra sighed.

"That is a very complicated explanation...but I can promise you that..._he_ is still in there, okay? He won't get out and hurt you." She looked at Alaric and Damon through the window and pointed at them for Josette to see. "What was with the lie? Do you not want them to know we're related or something?"

Jo looked at them as well, but she answered the question with a question of her own. "How do you know Alaric?"

"I don't. I know Damon. He was trapped with us for the last four months." Cassandra crossed her arms. "Josette, why'd you lie?"

"So he knows about Kai?"

"Yes, but—"

"I know, I know. I lied because I figured that they obviously know about Kai, seeing as you're out of the prison world now. I don't need the guy I'm dating to know about my crazy family just yet. One step at a time." Jo let out a huff as Cass cocked an eyebrow.

"You're dating a vampire?"

"Technically, he's a human now. So I _was _dating a vampire." Jo paused. "But...it doesn't really matter. I can't believe you're out. Are you—"

Cass frowned. "—sure that Kai is still in the prison world? Yes. I don't know how many times I have to say that before someone believes me and doesn't freak out about Kai getting out."

"That wasn't what I was going to ask." Josette put a hand on her sister's arm. "Are you okay, Cassandra? I can't...even begin to imagine what you've been through over the last twenty years."

The brunette teenager froze for a moment. Ever since she'd returned to the land of the living, no one had asked her that question. It had either been "how are you here" or "where's Kai?" or "I demand answers!", no one had really asked her if she was okay until that point. Truth be told, she wasn't okay. She couldn't sleep unless she had a vampire in her bed, she was eating food like it was nobody's business, and she was sure she smelled like crap because she'd been wearing the same jeans since she'd escaped from the prison world.

"I'm...a little lost," she admitted. Jo waited for her to elaborate, and Cassandra just gave her a small smile. "This world is a little overwhelming if I'm being honest. Damon said he's going to order me a phone tonight so that I have one but I don't know, it's just a lot to take in right now."

"How long have you been back?"

"Three days." Cass crossed her arms. "I saw Dad in Portland. He was _super _happy to see me."

"Oh, I can imagine."

Cassandra gave her sister a smile and nudged her back towards the door. "Come on. They're getting suspicious. Wouldn't want your new boyfriend to start digging around into your crazy family, now, would we?"

Upon re-entrance to Alaric's patient room, Damon turned around at the two dark-haired women and looked towards them with amused eyes. "Catching up on twenty years worth of gossip?"

"Something like that," Cassandra shot, stepping off to the side with Damon as Jo approached Alaric's bedside with a favorable smile.

"Do you have a nice suit and a clean pair of socks?" she asked randomly. Alaric knotted his eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah, I think so."

"Good. I'm releasing you. Hospital fundraiser is tonight. I'm making the interns go, so I need a date. I'll start your paperwork," the doctor explained. She turned around and headed for the door, but before she took a step, she looked at Cassandra and gave her sister a small smile. "You should come. If you want."

Cassandra didn't answer, quite unsure of herself. But in the end, it wasn't up to her whether or not they were going to the party—Damon was the one who made the ultimate decision.

"Honestly, I don't even want to go to this thing," Cass grumbled as she scowered the racks at the small boutique Damon took her to a little outside of Whitmore. He helped her, more or less, try to find a dress for the evening, as she had absolutely nothing to change into, for the event or any other occasion. Damon's eyes browsed the racks as he replied.

"Why not?"

"Because I have had a really stressful last two days," she told him sourly, looking away from the clothes disinterestedly and over her shoulder to him. "And I haven't been in an environment where I have to actually talk to people since 1994. I think I'm the very definition of socially awkward."

Damon scoffed. "Socially awkward?"

"Socially awkward, yes, that's what I said."

"You are not socially awkward, Cass," he told her, coming up behind her as he pushed aside a dress and grabbed one off the rack. He examined it for a moment, earning a suspicious look from him, but he then put it back and shook his head to move onto another rack. "Eccentric? Yes. But there's a difference."

She threw her hands up. "Oh, fantastic! Not awkward, just _eccentric!_"

"Pretty much." He turned around with a dress in his hand and extended it to her. "Here, try this on."

Cass eyed him. "Are you being serious right now?"

"Dead serious." A smile played on his lips from the pun.

"I hate you," she muttered as she snatched the dress out of his hand and stormed off to the fitting rooms. Damon waited outside, browsing the racks to find her regular clothes to wear and making sure to note other dresses in case she didn't like the one he'd chosen already, though he was pretty sure she would. When it came to what he wanted women to wear, he had excellent taste. It was a natural gift, just like it naturally came to him that at some point in the night, the dress would've most likely ended up next to his bed on the floor if he weren't already with Elena. It was a nice thought, but out of line entirely.

While Damon continued roaming the area outside the dressing room, he heard Cassandra call out, "Why does it matter so much that I go to this stupid fundraiser, anyways? I mean, I get why _you're _going but why do _I _have to?"

"Because, Cassandra," the vampire said slowly, getting irritated with her snippy tone, "in order to not be socially awkward, you need to learn how to handle yourself in a modern-day crowd."

She frowned as she slipped the dress over her head. "I thought I wasn't socially awkward!"

"Right. Of course." Damon smirked to himself. Cassandra, inside of the dressing room, looked at the dress on her body and sighed quietly. It was so different, so modern. She didn't know whether she liked it or she hated it, but it was definitely something different. She felt uncomfortable in her own skin, but there wasn't much she could do about that. Regardless, the dress fit perfectly on her and looked absolutely stunning—that she could not deny. Still, that didn't change her opinion on how much she didn't want to go to the stupid fundraiser. Suddenly, she heard Damon call out, "Are you done yet? Let's see it, Shakespeare."

Cass turned her head to the door as she could hear Damon's impatience outside, but she shook her head and stripped herself of the dress and changed back into her regular clothes. A few minutes later, she stepped out of the dressing room with the dress in her hand and nodded. "It looks fine. Whatever."

Damon frowned as he eyed her regular clothing. "I thought you were going to let me see it."

She grimaced. "Yeah, well, you can see it at this stupid fundraiser thing. That's your punishment for dragging me along with you. Now can I get some real clothes now are we gonna continue playing dress up?"

"All right, bossy," he quit and, with a grin, the vampire pointed behind her. "'Real clothes' are that way."

"Thank you," she said curtly and turned on her heel, Damon trailing not too far behind, snickering to himself.

xxx

"Cassandra, move your ass!" Damon scolded the witch in the other room as he straightened his tie and smoothed out his suit jacket. He glanced up at a clock and sighed. "We're going to be late if you don't get out here right now."

"Calm yourself!" she snapped back at him through the door of her room, and a moment later he heard her open it and step out. He turned his head to see her leaning on the threshold of the doorway, sliding her new shoes on as fast as she could. She straightened, slightly losing her balance in the heels he had convinced her to get, and Damon turned, slightly, refraining from having his mouth fall completely slack. It was one thing to see her in flanel clothes for a quarter of a year, it was another to see her completely naked, and then—oh, then—it was a different thing entirely to see her dressed to the nines.

"Uh, wow." Damon cleared his throat as he watched Cassandra clip a bracelet on her wrist hurriedly and nervously feel for a ring at her fingertips. "You look—"

"Ugly as shit? Yeah, I know. Thanks for reminding me." She rushed forward and grabbed her jacket from Alaric's office chair. "You know, this is the best you're gonna get from me when you give me twenty minutes to look half-decent. How long should a suit tailoring normally take?! Definitely not four hours!"

"Well, if I were allowed to go back into Mystic Falls, I would have my pre-tailored suits all ready to go, but sadly, that isn't possible right now," he admitted bitterly.

"Oh, what a terrible life you lead." Cass rolled her eyes and gestured towards the door. "Are you going to stand there and complain or do you want to leave now? I mean, it's fine with me if we stay here all night, honestly—"

"Let's go, Cassandra." Almost in a scolding manner, Damon ushered her out the door and the two headed across campus to meet up with Alaric at the tavern, where the hospital fundraiser was being held. Alaric had used his apartment to change earlier, of course, but he'd headed out long before to go pick his girlfriend up from the hospital and escort her to the event. When Damon and Cassandra arrived, they were acceptably, but fashionably, late.

"What are you, the Guest of Honor or something?" Alaric asked his date nonchalantly with a laugh as he saw his girlfriend's picture on a sign at the front door celebrate her expertise.

"I won an award for a battlefield medical clamp I patented." She took in a deep breath and looked around the room nervously. "Whitmore likes to trot me out when they wanna raise money."

"So basically...you're a genius."

"Or she has a witchy advantage," Damon added as he and Cassandra walked over to Alaric and Jo upon entering the tavern. Damon spun around in front of them with a thin smile. "What? It's supposed to be a secret that she's a witch?"

"I don't practice! So no witchy advantage. Just a lot of hard work." The doctor turned to her sister. "Did you invite him?"

Cass scowled. "I wanted to stay home."

"He sort of invited himself," Alaric jumped in wisely. "Mostly to _stalk_ Elena."

Damon looked around for a moment before settling exhausted eyes on his friend. "Oh, don't be so cynical. I'm here to spend some quality time with my once-dead-now-human best bud."

The brunette beside him turned suspiciously before turning back to Jo and Alaric with a quick, "No, he's definitely here to stalk his girlfriend. And, apparently, I'm here to become less socially awkward so...I should probably figure out how to do that."

But the vampire wasn't even paying attention to her. At mention of his girlfriend, Elena sauntered right into the tavern, as beautiful as ever. Her chestnut hair was down and flowed freely down her back, accenting subtly the elegant black gown he'd never sene before. She looked as stunning as usual, even more if it were possible. Damon was breathless.

And then someone else came in. A boy, looked around twenty with an arrogant smile. Elena turned her head over her shoulder and smiled at him, and he reached forward and grabbed her hand in his as she blushed. Damon instantly began to feel his heart break in his chest and fought out words he feared would throw him over the edge.

"Who's that?" he choked out. Jo and Alaric turned to see what he was talking about and quickly noticed Elena with the boy at the door. Cassandra caught on quickly who the beautiful brunette was entering Damon's sight and realized the mess when she spotted her hand connected with someone else's.

"That would be Liam Davis," Jo informed him as she turned around, slightly smug about the way she told him of his girlfriend's date. "Valedictorian, straight A's freshman year, taking junior-level classes—not to mention medical royalty. Not so bad on the eyes, either. Looks like he's Elena's date."

"Did I say I liked you?" Damon shot her a bittersweet grin. "I meant the opposite."

Cassandra watched as Damon, without a single look towards her, just shook his head and disappeared to the crowd. She tried to earn his attention back, but it was pointless. He was too focused on Elena to remember that he was the one who'd dragged her out to the godforsaken party just because he could. When he was gone, Cass turned back at Jo and Alaric with a sour frown.

"I need a drink," she mumbled.

"And yet you're only eighteen." Jo tsked, feigning disappointment. Cassandra cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah? Well your date's not. Sucks to be you, I'm stealing him for a moment. Go be the Guest of Honor, why don't you?" she offered as she reached forward and took Alaric's arm, dragging him along with her towards the bar. Alaric laughed.

"I don't know you well enough to buy you a drink."

"Well, buy me that drink and you'll get to know me well enough."

xxx

She didn't spend much of her night mingling. Truth be told, it was probably one of the worst night's she'd ever had. After Alaric had bought her first drink, they'd got to talking about some of the things that Damon had done that he never told Cassandra about back in the prison world. Some of them were funny things, and others were a little violent, as if Alaric had no better stories to tell her than the one about his best friend snapping his neck more than once. And somehow, eventually, they had ended up talking about Bonnie, and in response to that, Cassandra had asked him where Bonnie was buried so she could pay her respects. Unlike Elena and the rest of Damon's friends, he and Stefan were the only two that knew about Bonnie's existence in the prison world, as Damon had warned Cassandra earlier not to spill the beans to anyone else except Alaric and Stefan, as he thought it might cause them to hurt more than they needed to. It was the right thing to do, sure, but it was also very deceptive. Still, she understood where he had come from. It was a long-shot they'd ever get Bonnie back.

After Alaric, then came Jo. Cass swore that they were trading off just to keep her company, as Damon had abandoned her earlier in the night to dance with his girlfriend and attempt to stir up old memories while he ignored her to every end. She was a little disheartened, but she expected it. Damon was never really her friend, that was Bonnie. There was no reason getting torn up over it.

Halfway through the party, she saw Damon drinking at the bar and refused to console him, as he had done such a great job at ignoring her she might as well do him the same favor. But a few minutes later, Elena showed up behind him, took is drink, and he whisked her away to an unknown place. Two minutes after she saw them leave, she saw Elena's date wandering around like a lost puppy dog. He looked around the bar, desperate to see her face, and Cassandra just sighed and ordered a shot for the poor boy.

"Here," she had told the kid as the bartender had set a shot of tequila down on the bar. He had looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, but she just pushed the shot glass to him while she downed her own. "Your date ditched you, dude. Drink up."

Then, afterwards, she had no reason to stay at the party and ditched it, herself. For a moment, she wandered in the parking lot, and then she stopped and took a deep breath to make herself aware of her surroundings. No one was around and she was feeling nostalgic. And with that deep breath, she shut her eyes and thought of where she wanted to go and, surprisingly, when she opened them, she was there.

"A tree stump in a grave yard," Cass muttered under her breath as she stared down at the tree stump in curiosity, eyeing the feathers and the pom-poms and the Grimoire. "Not much of a grave if you ask me. But I guess it gets the job done."

And lying next to the tree stump, oddly enough, was an old bottle of half-drunken scotch. Normally, there would be something seriously wrong with her to want to drink an already opened bottle of scotch mysteriously floating around beside a grave, but after the night she'd had, it really didn't matter. With a sigh, she helped herself onto a fallen tree branch that served as her bench and she drank, drank, and drank until Damon found her just as the bottle began to run low on fuel, and he had his own supply of perfectly good alcohol.

"You left the party," he noted. She stared up at him drunkenly.

"You abandoned me at the party," she retorted. He sat down next to her and, without even so much as an apology, just extended his bottle. She hesitated, knowing that it was his lame ass excuse, but decided not to dwell. With a shrug, she took the bottle and endured a nice, long sip of the bourbon offered to her, wincing at the strength of the alcohol Damon indulged in. "Did you win your girlfriend back?"

"There's no winning her back, Cassandra. I don't want to talk about it. It's for the best." Damon took the bottle from her and drank, himself, as a long silence passed between them before Damon turned at her and asked, "Are you ever gonna tell me what happened in Portland or am I just gonna have to keep pretending like I don't care?"

"Pretending? Please." Cass scoffed, but when she looked at him, she only found him staring at her with serious eyes, waiting for her to answer his question. Eventually, she sighed. "What is there to tell you, Damon? I have a past. I confronted it. It didn't end so well, okay? If I'm being honest, you probably have it the best. You should be grateful you were only away for four months."

"Is it about your father?"

"I don't want to talk about it." She turned her cheek from him and wiped an annoying tear, pretending that it was just an allergy as she wiped it off on her dress and cleared her throat. "That party was excruciating. Never again."

Damon shrugged. "It wasn't that bad. If anything, you go for the dancing."

"I don't dance."

"Oh, come on..."

"No seriously." She nodded at him as his eyes captured hers. "I don't dance. Scratch that, I _can't _dance. I'm like the worst possible dancer on this planet. Ask me to dance and you'll end up getting a weird variation of the Running Man."

The vampire tried not to laugh, but he ended up bursting out into laughter, partially from the buzz of the alcohol but also because it was just too damn funny. Cassandra tried to protest and tell him that it wasn't funny, but she knew it was. She'd lived in the 90s too long. Their laughter filled the graveyard with a little piece of happiness for a few moments, and after they settled down, Damon lifted himself from the tree and set down the bottle of alcohol before extending a hand to her. She scoffed.

"What in God's name are you doing?"

Without giving her a choice, Damon reached forward and grabbed her hands, forcing her up from the tree. She protested, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. "I refuse to accept that you can't dance. It's easy."

"Yeah, for you maybe—Damon, come on!"

"Uh-uh, you ditched that party tonight, so you owe me a dance," he prompted, keeping a firm grip on her hand as he pulled her closer. Cass's mouth fell open, offended.

"You ditched me first, asshole!"

"Yeah, well...who cares? We're doing this."

She narrowed her eyes as he pulled her into a circle. "I hate you."

"You've said that before," he pointed out. "When are you going to actually say something that's true for once?" He moved them back, but as he did, she stumbled a bit, stepping on his shoe. If he weren't a vampire, it would've hurt. Damon sighed. "Cass, that was my shoe."

"Sorry!" the brunette exclaimed. "I told you, I'm not good at this!"

"That's because you're thinking, Shakespeare. And we both know what happens when you think."

"Oh? Then how do you suggest I stop—"

Right as she was about to finish the sentence, she felt herself pushed away from the vampire as he spun her around once, twice, and three times in the air before pulling her back to his chest and spinning her out again, so far that his arm extended all the way until he forced them back together as one. Cassandra didn't have any time to think at all, which was key. She didn't fight his lead, she didn't stare down at her feet. The rush of the wind made her laugh, somehow, and made her forget all about her crappy few days. It was better than sex, even, being thrown around in the wind. Under his arm, across his chest, around and around...and then up she went as he lifted her into his arms and spun her around quickly before setting her down, taking only a brief moment to appreciate her smile, which stretched from ear to ear. As the grand finale of the grand finale, he surprised her by spinning her once more before dipping her in his arms, watching as she tilted her head back in a light-hearted laugh, one that he had never heard before. It was genuine, or something that she couldn't fake like she had so many other times before. When he pulled her back to a level head, she giggled, very unlike her.

"That was amazing," she admitted. Damon grinned as he focused on her smile.

"I've never seen you smile like that before," the vampire noticed aloud. She grinned back at him, still on an adrenaline rush.

"I haven't had much to smile about." Her hazel eyes captured his own and for a moment, they were lost in a sea of strange, utter happiness that was inexplicable. Her father basically didn't give two fucks about her and the only person she'd ever had feelings for had a wife and children and in an effort to be the bigger person, she let him go. His home had been ripped away from him, his friend betrayed his memory, and his girlfriend was better off without him. But in that moment, and that moment only, there was nothing to be sad about.

However, all good things come to an end. The period of contentness ended and it was back to reality—back to the next chapter. Damon spotted something out of the corner of his eye, snapping both him and Cassandra out of their haze, and the two pulled away from each other. Damon, dropping his smile, rushed over to the Salvatore tomb standing a few feet away from them, where he saw a tiny little bear sitting at the entrance.

"Damon, what is it?" Cass asked as she followed him, making sure to pick up her dress so the hem didn't touch the ground as she ran. Damon reached forward and grabbed the teddy bear.

"Bonnie!" he breathed out, turning around to Cassandra with the bear in his arms. Cassandra's eyes widened as he smiled. "She's still alive!"

But as Damon smiled, Cassandra swallowed back the lump in her throat as a word crossed her mind: _Malachai. _

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

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**thisdarkpassenger: **Thanks! Here's the update!

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**Guest: **It's coming. I'm getting excited for it too. Actually, I'm getting excited for 6x09 because I have a lot of stuff that's going to happen in that chapter. Anyways, here's the update! Hope you liked it!

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**Theresa5155: **Thank you! He didn't have much to say but Cassandra will be with Stefan and Alaric next chapter so they'll get to talk a little more next. Thanks for the review!

**glass27doll: **Thank you! That's so nice of you to say. Haha well your name is pretty awesome. Well here's the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **His furrowed brows are the bomb though :) lol

**HALEBTRASH: **Yes. I think he will be coming back whatever chapter episode 6x10 will be. He and Cassandra still have a lot to discuss.

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**klandgraf2007: **I know and that's why her character is so heartbroken in this chapter especially, but hopefully Damon will be able to mend some of that sting that she got from being forgotten after 20 years. I honestly didn't care about Joshua at all so I basically just did what I wanted with his character but I'm glad that it didn't turn out crappy haha! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **"Woke Up With a Monster" will be an interesting episode and I'm excited for it. Not too far away from it! Thanks for the review!

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	11. I'm Sorry, Cassandra

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**I'm Sorry, Cassandra**

xxx

_May 1994_

_"Final call for Flight 2240 from London Heathrow to Portland International. All passengers, this is your final call for Flight 2240 from London Heathrow to Portland International." _

_With no choice left, Cassandra rose hesitantly from her seat in the gate lounge, feeling a sickening turning in her stomach as she watched the final passengers board the plane. Her hand shook, her palms were sweating, and she contemplated what would happen if she just turned around and went back to her comfortable dorm room at Greenwich Boarding. _

_"I guess this is it." _

_She turned around reluctantly, fighting back the impulsive urge inside of her to defy everything she'd ever known for the boy standing in front of her, not wanting to let her go as much as she didn't want to. He rose as well to look her in the eye, his heart breaking. Cassandra swallowed thickly. _

_"It's just for a weekend." It was a lie. She knew it. He knew it. Once she stepped on that plane, there was no going back._

_"Of course." Ethan reached forward, cautiously, and brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes as if it were a habit. It made her extremely uncomfortable, and it made him wince. "It's just for the weekend." _

_"You have a plane to catch, too," she reminded him, referring to his plane to his family's island. It was a private plane that would take him at any time, sure, but the principal still applied. Ethan gave her a somber smile. _

_"Right."_

_"I _will _be back," she repeated, as if saying it enough would make it true. "Even if they make me stay, I'll...I'll find a way to make it back. I promise."_

_He bit down on his tongue, and she could see him bite back the words they both wanted to say. Eventually, all Ethan did was nod. "I know. I know, Cassie. I love you." _

_Cassandra inhaled sharply and urged, "I'll come back."_

_But he couldn't listen to her anymore. Quickly, he reached forward and kissed her so fast that by the time she opened her eyes, he had turned around and was headed for the other part of the airport. She felt as if her heart was ripped out of her chest the second he was more than twenty feet from her, his back turned, refusing to look back. She fought the urge to let the tears spill out of her eyes and just took a deep breath, whereupon she turned around and walked calmly to the gate to present the flight attendant with her ticket._

_"Enjoy your flight," the attendant said with a charming smile. Cassandra tried to force one back, but there was no use. A tear spilled over, making the flight attendant extremely uncomfortable, but she just hurriedly pulled her luggage along with her as she made her way onto the plane, clearing away any signs of her broken heart. _

xxx

"Hey, were you, uh, invited to Friendsgiving?" Stefan asked his brother as he fished Bonnie's teddy bear out of the sedan's trunk, along with his backpack that he'd packed for the trip to Portland, where they were on the search for the Gemini Coven so that they could track down Bonnie. Damon intentionally left Cassandra back at Whitmore sleeping, where he knew she'd be out cold for hours before she could track them down. About an hour into the car ride to Portland, he'd gotten about a dozen texts from her, complaining about him leaving her alone, but he ignored them. It was best for her if she weren't with them, considering who they were trying to track down: Cassandra's father. To Stefan's question, Damon shrugged.

"Of course. Caroline demanded I bring string beans."

Stefan turned his head, biting the inside of his cheek. "Huh."

"Why? Were you not invited?"

"Nope."

Damon chuckled. "Oh, boy. You messed with the wrong girl's feelings."

As the elder brother clapped his hand on his younger sibling's shoulder with a soft laugh, Stefan turned to him with a scowl but ultimately retorted, "Speaking of girl's feelings..."

"Oh, here we go..."

"What's with that girl that came looking for you at the bar?" Stefan asked, turning so that he could face Damon, who stood with a clearly disinterested look on his face. "Cassandra, right? You two seemed to be awful...friendly when you saw each other."

Damon frowned. "I spent four months in the same house as her. She and I escaped from a psychopathic murderer trapped in a prison world. I think that calls for a hug, Stefan."

"You took her to the fundraiser, too."

"To get her out of the house! Stop being so cynical. You're just like Bonnie."

Stefan shrugged. "Just saying. It looked like a pretty comfortable hug to me."

But Damon wasn't listening anymore. Instead, he overheard Elena's voice on the phone as she spoke to Alaric about the fact that Bonnie was still alive and that they were trying to find her. Elena complained of how Damon had hid this fact from her, causing him to create a bitter tone in his voice, knowing she would hear.

"Why wouldn't I consult you in a decision that might permanently change your life? Hmm...I wonder," he threw at her, a sarcastic smile on his lips. Alaric turned back and shook his head.

"He didn't wanna get your hopes up. He honestly thought Bonnie died trying to free him and Cassandra. If she sent her teddy bear over, it could mean she's still..."

_"Bonnie's still alive? Oh, my God!" _

"Yeah, so we're in Portland right now trying to track down some Gemini thing..."

"Ascendant!" Damon hissed to the human, filling in the blanks. Alaric could hear Elena's smile over the phone.

_"This is amazing!" _

Stefan, who was leaning on the car listening to the conversation, whispered to the adult, "Alaric, you might want to keep this news to yourself. Tracked this lead months ago. It was a dead end."

Alaric turned around, thinking about what to tell the teenage vampire on the other side of the line. Instead of relaying Stefan's negative outlook, he decided to say, "Stefan sends his love."

With that said, he ended the call and slipped his phone into his pocket while Damon and Stefan walked forward next to him so they could continue forth. Damon jerked his finger back to his brother and smiled at Ric.

"Stefan wasn't invited to Friendsgiving."

Alaric widened his eyes. "Is that the reason Caroline assigned me the turkey _and _the cranberries? Stefan wasn't invited!"

Damon threw up his hands. "See what you did?! Now we're pulling your weight. I really hope you figure this out before Christmas."

Stefan looked back at them sourly. "Yeah, well, I'm glad you're both finding amusement in this."

"Why don't you just date her and put us out of our misery?"

"Because I don't think about her that way! She's my friend."

"Who would make a great girlfriend!" Damon suggested, and then held up his hand. "Look: one...she's hot, objectively."

"Two, she puts up with you," the human added.

"Big plus! Three...very, very well organized."

"Organizational skills?" Stefan asked in disbelief. Damon groaned.

"There are no drawbacks to this _woman, _Stefan!"

Alaric hesitated. "Eh...she did sleep with you."

"See? Another plus!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Suddenly, Damon, Stefan, and Alaric whipped around sharply to come face-to-face with Cassandra, who stood up from the gravel of the dirt road they had followed up to the front of her home, brushing her jeans off as she realized what they were doing. All of them were confused, wondering how in the hell she had gotten to where they were, but the answer seemed simple: magic. Damon's eyes widened as Cassandra shot a death glare towards him. "This is why you left me in an empty apartment? To come and see my dad?"

"How the hell did you even find us?!" the vampire shouted in disbelief. She tossed him what was in her hand and he caught it, quickly recognizing that it was a half-open bourbon bottle he had indulged the night before.

"It's called a spell, dumbass. Did you really think I would just sit at home and wait?"

Alaric shrugged and chimed, "You probably could've asked for an invitation to Friendsgiving. Since Stefan wasn't invited, there was an empty seat."

Damon looked back and Cassandra and sighed. "I didn't want to tell you where we were going or take you because I knew it would be too hard. You told me how badly your reunion went with your ungrateful father. I didn't want to bring up old wounds."

"This is about Bonnie, isn't it?" She gestured to his backpack, where Mrs. Cuddles was situated. Damon nodded slowly, and so she scoffed back at him. "Damon, I would do anything for her. You know that. I could care less about seeing my father right now if it means getting the Ascendant so we can get her back."

Behind them, Stefan snorted, gaining attention to him. He threw up his arms and gestured at the empty field beyond his fingertips. "I don't think seeing your father is going to be an issue. Behold, the Gemini Coven. Exactly how it looked...four months ago. Like I said, uh, three-thousand miles ago, it's not here."

"Guys..." Cass began, crossing her arms as she watched Alaric and Damon, both of them extremely curious, walk forward and survey the scene before them. They ignored her which, in hindsight, probably wasn't smart.

"You know what? Check the GPS again," Alaric suggested. "Just because we don't see anything, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"Not unlike Caroline's feelings for Stefan," Damon added snarkily as Stefan pulled out his phone and checked his GPS as asked. The younger brother gave his sibling a sour smile.

"Hilarious. Keep 'em coming."

"Hello? Is anyone going to listen to me?" the brunette practically shouted from behind them, but Damon ignored her as he grabbed Bonnie's bear and started to speak in a higher-pitched mocking tone.

"Oh, no, is Stefan feeling sensitive about ruining his friendship with Caroline? She really liked him and he broke her heart!"

"See, Stefan. Even the bear knew," Alaric pointed out.

"I saw that from a mile away and my brain's made of cotton!"

"Give me this!" Stefan muttered under his breath as he grabbed Bonnie's bear and held it in his hands tightly before putting the poor stuffed animal up into the air, expecting it to land somewhere far away from him in the large grass field where the Gemini Coven should be located. Cassandra watched in disinterest as the three men in front of her all froze, seeing the ripple in her home's barrier that had been penetrated by Bonnie's magic. Seconds later, a home showed up right in front of their eyes as Cassandra pushed past them all and turned around on the front step.

"Welcome to my home," she said, somewhat sourly. They all stared at her with an extreme amount of incredulity. "If you three idiots are done ignoring me, I would be delighted to take you to my jerk father so we can find the Ascendant and get this show on the road. Does that work for you three? Alright then."

Damon, with a small smile, stepped forward and bent behind Cassandra to grasp the bear in his hand. He held it up high as if it were a trophy and bellowed, "Miss Cuddles: one! Invisible creepy mansion: zero."

Cass watched as a triumphant grin overtook Damon's face and, with a scoff, she turned around and walked to the door before taking a deep breath. She had only left her father's clutches a few days ago, and now she's was right back at him again, how odd was that? Cass knew, very well, that he would try to do whatever it was that he had tried to do when she came the first time, and she didn't know if it would end well a second time around. Here's hoping.

"Anybody wanna take a stab at how Bonnie's teddy bear undid whatever was cloaking this place?" Stefan propositioned.

"You said without laughing," Damon muttered.

"Jo told me she got rid of her magic by putting it away for safekeeping," Alaric chimed in, eyeing the bear suspiciously. He turned it around for Damon, Stefan, and Cass to see. "Maybe Bonnie put her magic away in this."

"Well, of course she did. Were we not aware of this before?" Cassandra agreed, crossing her arms at them. They all stared at her, confounded. "Look, I sensed her magic in the bear when Damon and I found her. I thought you'd assumed the same thing."

Damon frowned. "I don't just look at Miss Cuddles and go 'oh, maybe Bonnie's magic is in there!', Cass."

"Well, to a witch, it makes sense. I did the same thing, remember?"

"Wait, but why would Bonnie put her magic in Miss Cuddles?" Stefan inquired.

"Malachai," Cass answered simply. Damon nodded.

"To keep him from using her to get out."

After realizing what the bear's reappearance had meant, Damon had began to grow impatient. He angrily walked towards the door of the Parker home and twisted open the doorknob. Cass protested, opening her mouth to say something, but Damon got the gist of it when he tried to step in, but it was protected by a human owner with the responsibility to invite him in, which he had already guessed.

"Can't say I miss that," Alaric muttered under his breath from behind them, playing with the teddy bear in his hand.

Cass, disregarding the vampire beside her, merely stepped forward into the house and watched as Damon eyed her with irritability and grumbled, "Let me in, Cass?"

"Sorry." She shrugged. "Since I was kind of locked away in a prison world and everything for the last two decades, I'm pretty sure the deed's in Joshua's name."

With an unimpressed look, Damon moved his eyes from the witch in front of him and turned to face his friend, the newly turned human, who was leaning against the pillar on the front porch. Damon's lips turned up bitterly. "It's all yours, brother."

Alaric lifted himself up, shoved the teddy bear back to Damon, and stepped across the threshold of the Parker household to stand next to Cassandra while Stefan and Damon watched, intrigued, through the threshold unable to do anything to help. As Cassandra began to move up the steps, Alaric followed her wearily.

"Do you know where to find the Ascendant?" he asked as they turned the corner of the second level. Cass hesitated.

"Um...no, that I don't know. But we better hurry. I have no idea how long my dad will be, uh, wherever he is right now. It's a miracle we caught him when he's not home," she muttered disinterestedly as she pushed open a door at the end of the hallway: her old bedroom. Perhaps, she hoped, her father had felt so guilty about abandoning her with her psychopathic brother that he found some sort of closure keeping the Ascendant back in her old room. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.

Only, upon entry to her room, she felt a chilling atmosphere; it was as if the ghost of her past had occupied her four walls for as long as she had been separated from her home. The room was run-down, untouched with dust bunnies flying around carelessly. Everything was as she'd left it, even the pile of books thrown in the corner from the time she had come home at Christmas and thrown a magic tantrum so bad that her parents sent her off to Switzerland the very next day. Nostalgia flooded her core as Alaric circled the room, looking for any clues. He looked up at Cassandra to see her maudlin look and cocked an eyebrow.

"You okay?"

She shook her head out of the funk. "Yeah. Yeah, fine."

"Alright...um, can you tell me what this Ascendant looks like, exactly?"

Cass, clearing her throat, rushed forward and started digging through the drawers of her nightstand while she spoke. "It's um...it's round and it looks like a mechanical part of a...clock or something. It can fit in the palm of your hand, it's gold and silver. If you find...anything that looks out of the ordinary, just show it to me. I'll be able to pick it out. Look through the room next to mine, it's through the bathroom."

She pointed behind her and Alaric, with a nod, walked over to the bathroom and went inside to connect to the room on the other side. Cassandra rustled through her nightstand before getting on her knees to look in the boxes she hid under her bed, and as she did so, she heard Alaric gasp.

"What?" Cass asked, looking up so fast she nearly got whiplash. She said louder, "Did you find it?"

"'Doctor Josette Laughlin of Whitmore Hospital was recognized this Saturday for her brilliant invention of a new medical clamp to aid doctors on the battlefield'," Alaric read aloud as he reached Cass's door, his teeth nearly grinding together. Cass froze.

"Oh, no," she grumbled to herself. Alaric looked up at her with wide eyes.

"All these pictures of her? She lived here, didn't she?"

"Alaric..."

"I can't believe this." He scoffed before turning on his heel, angrily storming down the stairs and out of the house by the time Cassandra had managed to lift herself from the floor and shove all the boxes away from her. She raced after Alaric, who found Stefan and Damon standing outside talking in the front yard.

By the time Alaric had finished telling the Salvatore brothers the truth, Cass made her way outside and was standing on the front porch steps, watching as Alaric showed Damon and Stefan all the pictures from what she could assume was her father's 'favorite child' drawer, as he'd always favored Josette over everyone, of course. Knowing she would have to take the heat for the secret, Cass waited and watched for no more than two seconds before Damon turned around angrily, waving a picture up in his hand as he stormed over to her. She sighed heavily and waited as he went off.

"Are you kidding me, Cassandra? Seriously? Another secret! You know, I sort of understand your sick, twisted reasoning behind keeping to yourself that your brother had been with us for four months, but this? Why did you feel the need to lie about this?" he demanded, shoving the picture of Cass and Josette in 1993 in her face.

Cass stepped down and shook her head at him. "You don't understand, it wasn't my—"

"I don't need any more excuses! I need the truth!"

"Cassandra." Before the dark-haired teenager was able to respond to Damon's harsh tone, they were both interrupted by another voice: Joshua. Cassandra turned to face him and stiffened as he neared her and Damon, pulling off his gardening gloves while surveying his visitors. "I didn't know you brought your friends."

She frowned. "Friends would be a bit of a stretch, Dad. Didn't know you were home."

"Well you wouldn't, would you?" he shot at her before turning his attention to Damon, nodding once. "You've met Kai?"

"Met him?" Damon retorted as Joshua neared closer to him. "Watched him die, watched him come back to life. I'm guessing you're Cass's dad?"

The white-haired man stuck out his hand. "I'm Joshua Parker."

"Damon Salvatore."

"Invisique," Joshua chanted, clasping onto Damon's hand as hard as he could.

Damon, weary of the strange man before him, yanked his hand away while beside them, Cassandra snapped, "Dad!"

"What the hell just happened?" Stefan asked from behind Damon, and the vampire turned to watch as his brother and his friend both stood around in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. Damon raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you guys?"

"Damon, he put a spell on you," Cass said through her teeth as she gave her father an unwanted look. "They can't see us anymore."

Joshua smiled. "Which means they also can't see this."

"Dad, no!" Cass shouted as her father brought his hand up to Damon's head, using his powerful magic to force Damon onto his knees, moaning and groaning in pain. Cassandra braced to do something, but right as she did, with the flick of his hand, Joshua made sure that his daughter was able to stay back long enough for him to render Damon unconscious so he could get what he needed.

xxx

Cass had been pacing for about thirty minutes in front of the couch her father had forced Damon onto inside the house. She watched in envy as the candle on the table burned, making her magic useless as long as the flame was lit by Joshua's will. His old tricks were annoying, but she was too anxious to care. Slowly, Damon began to wake up with a groggy noise, rolling over from his stomach onto his back as he adjusted to consciousness. Cass rushed over to the side of the couch and sat down next to it, eyeing Damon cautiously.

"Damon, are you okay?" she asked quickly.

He groaned again. "Your father's a real fucking charmer, Cass."

"You don't need to remind me."

Damon opened his eyes a little bit more and stared at Cassandra, knotting his eyebrows. "Do you know what he wants?"

"I'm...assuming to do whatever spell he meant to do before I skipped out on him the last time I showed up here unannounced. Only, this time he was smart about it." She sighed and gestured to the candle on the table. "Flame equals no magic."

He frowned. "Blow it out, then."

"If only it were that easy," Joshua interrupted them again, gaining their undivided attention. Cassandra stood to face her father as Damon lifted himself from a lying position so that he was hunched over the couch, trying to recover from his magic-induced blackout. Joshua looked at Cassandra with a stern look. "Cassandra, I need to do that spell."

"Why?" she demanded angrily. "I already told you, Kai won't get out!"

"And that's why you came here? To tell me again that Kai won't get out of the prison world? Come on, Cassandra. Your friend is alive after all, isn't she?" Cass stiffened while her father watched her, looking for any signs of body language to ensure his correctness. She could tell all the lies she wanted, but that didn't make her better at it. Joshua rose his chin and narrowed his eyes as he concluded, "I'll take it she is."

"What happens with Malachai is no longer your concern," she spat, somewhat abruptly. He stared her down as she began to explode at him. "You put me there! You left me in charge of him, of what happens to him. I was stuck in there for twenty years playing 'babysitter' to my older brother! I'm in charge of what I do with the prison world, not you anymore! Give me the Ascendant, Dad."

"So what? So Kai can escape and merge with Jo? I will never let that happen."

Without warning, her father turned on his heel to the other room, where with a flick of his hand, a bunch of candles lit aflame as he approached the table where he would conduct his spell. Damon looked up at Cassandra to earn her attention, but she was too focused on the anger she felt towards her father to even notice him. When the vampire realized that she wouldn't look at him, he decided to lift himself up from the couch anyways and walk over to the threshold of the living room, where he could clearly see Joshua hovering over his candles ready to do a spell.

"When you say 'merge'...you don't actually mean 'merge', do you?" he asked, crossing his arms and leaning over by the wall. Joshua turned around.

"That's exactly what I mean. If Kai gets out, he'll head straight for Jo. His ability to siphon magic will overwhelm Jo and she will die, and our coven will be left to the whims of a madman!"

"Of course." Damon looked to his side and watched as Cass walked forward, entering the dining room to look her father head-on. "Because the Coven has always been your priority, Dad! Magic before blood, isn't that right? God, you would think that...just for a second, you could just _pretend _to actually care about your children!"

"I do care about you, Cassandra!" Joshua snapped. "You think I wanted to send you away to that wretched prison? You think I wanted to condemn my daughter to a lifetime of misery? I had no choice!"

"You had a choice," she retorted quietly. He stared while she held back the tears in her eyes and forced out, "If you hadn't forced me to come back home...if you hadn't made me do that spell in the first place, I would've been fine. I could've avoided the past twenty years of _hell!" _

"What do you want me to say?" he asked, exasperated. "That I'm sorry for doing what I had to do? I'm sorry, Cassandra. I am. You're my daughter, I...I didn't mean for it to end up like that! But it did and...and sending Kai away had to be done either way."

When the room had fallen silent and there was nothing more to say, Damon decided to chime in, changing the subject. "Look, let's talk about this Ascendant."

"I won't let him out, Damon!" Joshua snapped.

The vampire sighed. "Alright, I wasn't gonna say anything...because you're his dad and all, but if he gets out...I'll just kill him. It's that simple!"

"I've watched Jo her whole life." The white-haired man turned back at Damon with a scowl. "She's done well on her own; survived war, became a doctor. But if Jo merges with Kai, she will _cease_ to exist. Kai won't just be our coven's problem, he'll be everyone's problem."

Turning back around, Joshua dropped whatever was in his hands into the bowl, and when Cassandra looked over, she could see it was Jo's locket. Before starting the spell, Joshua picked up a knife from the table beside him and turned to Cassandra, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Please, Cassandra," he started, extending the knife to her. "I need you to do this."

"No." She stood her ground, knowing exactly what he would do and wanted no part in it. "I will not help you eliminate my sister. You and Kai combined have ruined my life, Dad. This has gone too far now."

Joshua hesitated, as if conducting an internal debate with himself. She watched him as the wheels turned in his mind, and all of a sudden, his hand extended with a deep breath and his fingers curled. Cass's eyes widened as she watched Damon scream out in intense pain, again dropping to his knees, his fingers in his hair clawing at the skin on his head. Her heart started to pound as she turned back at her father, who just shook his head with apologetic eyes.

"Cassandra, take the knife. Please. I don't want to hurt him, but I will."

"Dad, stop—"

"Take. The. Knife."

"Dad—!" But he just shoved the knife at her, and Cassandra watched as Damon's body fell over, his fist clenched so hard his hand turned purple as he banged it against the floor, still screaming. The piercing sound hurt her ears and she couldn't bare it anymore. Anxiously, she grabbed the knife from her dad's fingers and walked over to the bowl with the locket inside and, in one swift movement, created a deep gash in the center of her palm. Her blood dripped down from her clenched fist into the bowl, and she threw the knife aside as her father relaxed his magic on Damon and allowed the vampire to breathe. Cass sprinted over to Damon, who forced himself up on his side and recoiled from the second blow of the day while Joshua started his spell, the locket and blood fusing together into a mush of red and silver, consequently harming his own daughter.

With a growl, Damon, tired of being taken advantage of, snapped. He flitted forward, pinning Joshua up against the wall by his throat, cutting off his airway. As a result, Joshua continued his magic, this time using it as a self-defense practice. Cass stood by idly, trying to find any sort of method to prevent her father from continuing the madness he was putting them through. She moved over towards the candle just as Joshua angrily stormed into the living room, grabbing a wooden candlestick from the fireplace to use as a weapon. Cass shouted in protest, stumbling over to her father and bending the wooden stick in his hand back to deter him from using it against Damon, but he pushed her onto the floor and loomed over the vampire, ready to strike. Right as he did, the door swung open and Stefan flashed inside, using his vampire strength to pin Joshua to the wall as his brother had before. In a hurry, Cass lifted herself and sprinted over to Damon, kneeling by his side as he recovered from Joshua's magic again. Stefan was forced off the witch and onto the floor and Joshua disappeared into thin air, the candle flame dissipating with him.

Stefan, Damon, and Cass all lifted themselves from the floor as the younger Salvatore sighed, "Well, I guess the disappearing act is their shtick."

"Yeah." Damon frowned.

Cass looked at the younger vampire seriously. "Stefan, I need to talk to my sister. Now."

xxx

_Petrified wasn't even a word that began to describe what she felt. _

_When Cass and her parents had returned home from the airport, they had come upon a gruesome scene: blood staining the walls of their magical home, corpses of their loved ones strewn across the floor and around the house, and trails of injuries left and right around the corridors. Malachai revealed himself as the killer and Josette revealed her plan._

_"Cassandra," her father had told her when the time had come to fool Malachai, to trick him into thinking that he was going to merge when, in reality, they were going to send him to a place where he was the only one of his murderous, unnatural kind. They stood outside in the forest, waiting for Jo and Malachai to make their presence. "I know we have spent years trying to curve you to control your magic, but...but tonight I need you to do everything you can. I need you to send him away for good." _

_Cassandra swallowed thickly. "Dad, I don't know what that will do. When I don't control it, I..." _

_"It doesn't matter, Cassandra. The Coven will balance nature. Josette has no magic now, so you need to use everything you have. Please." He looked at her with begging eyes, frightened eyes, and she knew that he was right. He was right. They had to do everything, including letting her lose control of which she'd worked so hard to gain over the past few years, so that Kai would be put away for good. _

_They waited until nightfall for the eclipse. Josette and Malachai stood in the middle of the woods, right underneath the solar eclipse, and began to preform the spell for the merge. Little did Malachai know, she had no magic to merge. It took him a few minutes, but finally, he looked up at Josette with their coven watching in the sidelines and mumbled a murderous, "Josette, what did you do? Why can't I feel your magic?" _

_Then he realized. Then, he stepped away from Josette out of the light of the solar eclipse and looked around at his coven members, asking why they weren't speaking. And just as he figured out that he was being tricked, Joshua started the spell, cueing the rest of the coven to strengthen it. _

_"NO!" Malachai shouted as he dropped to the floor, screaming out in agony. Cassandra stepped out from beside Malachai, finding it too easy to let her magic slip from her. The forest winds rushed, the sky roared, and Malachai's screams were the only thing louder than the thunder. Joshua continued the spell, Cassandra chanting along with him to put him away for good, but then something strange happened. _

_Malachai growled vindictively, thrashing around, fighting against the pain he could feel in his whole body. All of a sudden, Cassandra found herself being pulled to the ground with him, his hand clasped onto her arm so hard she was sure she was bleeding. The winds stopped, the thunders ceased. Kai still screamed, as the coven continued their chanting, but Joshua stopped dead cold realizing his daughter's disconnection from the spell. _

_"Dad!" Cass screamed out as she started to feel the pain that Kai had pulled her into. She fought against him, desperately trying to claw away from Kai's evil grasp. _

_Josette screamed out in protest and reached forward to grab Cassandra, but as she reached out for her sister's hand, Joshua shouted, "No! Josette, stay back!" _

_"But he's taking her with him!" Jo refused. Her father, though there were tears in his eyes, shook his head. _

_"If you help her, you'll be taken too. We have to end this." _

_"Dad!" Cass screamed again, and her father watched in pain as she started to cry while Malachai let out an evil growl. Joshua, with a sick look on his face, just swallowed thickly. _

_"I'm sorry, Cassandra," he whispered before saying the final words of the spell, and the light enveloped both Cassandra and Malachai, sending them both away to another dimension. _

xxx

Though Jo suffered a small attack from her father's spell, on the phone, she revealed to be perfectly fine—and, in fact, revealed that she was the one who housed the Ascendant they were looking for. In response to Damon's rudeness earlier, neglecting to tell her that he, Alaric, and Stefan had gone on a road trip to see her dad, she left him, Alaric, and Stefan out in Portland to fare for themselves. The next morning, she was in the tavern of the desolate Whitmore (which had been vacated on account of the holiday weekend) with a cup of coffee in her hand when Damon joined her. Upon his presence, he let out a heavy sigh, sat next to her at the bar, reached over the counter, grabbed a bottle of bourbon-whiskey, and poured it heartily into a glass without a single word. Cass scoffed.

"I mean, you figure it's five o'clock _somewhere _right?"

"I don't need it to be five o'clock to drink, Cassandra." Damon took a gulp of his alcohol while she shrugged.

"How was your flight?"

"Boring. In fact, I was really looking forward to the guilt trip you're about to take me on."

"Hey! Don't pin the blame on me. You're the idiot that decided not to take the Gemini on the 'Let's Find the Gemini Coven' field trip!"

"I knew you wouldn't want to see your father again." He turned and looked at her pointedly, where she just wrinkled her nose without a word and looked down at her coffee. "And I can see why now. The only time I've seen you get that mad was with Kai."

Cass frowned. "Just hearing Kai's name makes my blood boil. But yes, I was mad at my father."

"You said he was the one that forced you to do the spell?" he prompted, staring at her while she drummed her fingertips on the side of her cup of coffee and stared ahead, refusing to look at him.

"He didn't...didn't _force _me. I did it because I wanted to—because I needed to, as a member of my coven. Kai needed to pay for what he did, but...but my father asked me to use all of my magic; that's when it's the strongest. So I did, I used my magic and it got out of control. The next thing I knew, I felt like I was being pulled apart...physically ripped in half. Kai grabbed onto me and clung so hard, I could barely feel my arm. I begged my dad to stop the spell, to help me, but he didn't. Jo tried to grab me from Kai, but he told her not to. The last thing I remember him saying was...'I'm sorry, Cassandra', and I woke up in the prison world with Kai."

The whole tavern was silent and Damon observed Cassandra as she blinked for a moment and, in almost a delayed reaction, lowered her head and brushed off the memory she had relived in her head, pulling her coffee up to her lips and finishing it quietly. Damon tried to think of something to say, but he didn't know how to express what he was thinking in words.

So he settled upon: "Your dad's a dick."

She chuckled, almost choking on the coffee she was drinking as she heard Damon's vulgar words. With a smile, she came up for air and nodded at him. "Yeah. He is."

"Thanks for today, by the way," Damon started, taking a sip of his bourbon as he nonchalantly expressed his gratitude. "You didn't have to do what your dad asked to help me."

"Oh, but I did."

"Oh, really? Why?"

"Because..." she trailed off as she turned to him with a small smile, and upon meeting his gaze, that smile slowly began to flatten as she stared into his ice blue eyes, almost sucking her into a deep abyss of character. He waited patiently as she, with a slight polite grin, finished, "I didn't want to see you get hurt."

Damon smiled back at her, but before he could say anything, someone entered the tavern, sounding off the bell on the door. Instantly, Damon's attention was ripped from Cass over to whoever was at the door, and all Cass saw was a pretty, young brunette power walk to the bar with a dissatisfied look on her face.

Without noticing her presence, the young brunette walked over to Damon and proclaimed, "You should've brought me with you—well, first you should've told me that Bonnie was alive...and then you should've brought me with you!"

"Well, Ric had more frequent flyer miles. And Ric didn't deliberately forget our entire relationship," Damon muttered under his breath before turning to Cassandra, but his attention did not lie with her whatsoever. "Elena, this is Cassandra. Cass, this is—"

"The infamous Elena. Of course," Cassandra said quietly. Elena stared at her, giving her only a small, polite smile before acting like she still didn't exist. When Cassandra realized that the awkward silence in the room was a social cue for her, as explained by the fact that Damon didn't even recognize her presence anymore, Cass decided to clear her throat and lift herself off the barstool. "Okay, well...um, I'm gonna go check on Jo. I'll see you later."

Neither Damon nor Elena said anything to her, they just waited for her to get at least four feet away before resuming their own conversation. Cass rushed out of the tavern faster than a normal human could, and it was only when she was outside that she decided to take a breather. She felt something abnormal in her stomach, something along the lines but a lot more powerful than what she had felt when it came to Ethan. It was like a burning, icky feeling in the pit of her stomach. Well, social trauma wasn't really her forte, being in a desolate world for 20 years and all, but she knew it was a new feeling. She knew it was something that could be explained by a word.

It didn't matter. She shook it off and left, trying to push Damon to the farthest corner of her mind.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**DamonsSavior: **Thanks! Sorry for the long wait, I had SATs to study for :)

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Trueeee though! Even more so in this chapter and the ones following this one.

**Stefananddamonarebae: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thank you! Yeah, those scenes were cute. Well, you could definitely tell in this chapter, she definitely feels like she can trust him with her secrets and let her guard down a bit, but Damon's so focused on Elena it's hindering him from seeing Cass wanting to confide in him. But his eyes will be opened in the next chapter. So (without divulging too much even though I'm still struggling with future plotlines) it wouldn't be much of a story if Cass up and died at the end of Season 6 and it would be too easy for her to just become a vampire, so there will be some twists at the end of Season 6 with Kai's revenge. But we'll find out soon enough! Thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!

**LMarie99: **Thanks! Here's the update!

**WickedlyMinx: **It's been a long time but here's the chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.

**Guest: **I was studying for SATs during Thanksgiving break, I didn't have any time for writing. But here's the chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **In 6x10 it'll just be Jo, but Cass won't be involved. She's going to be going through some of her own issues in 6x10 so she will be deviating from the events in the episode to take some quality time for herself (but also not alone). But Kai will be taking her in 6x11 instead of Elena because Elena's irrelevant and no one cares about her. Thanks!

**teresa shulca: **I'll try my best but...I mean, with what happens at the end of Season 6, it's not like it can really go anywhere. I think I might end up bringing someone else in for Bonnie like maybe one of Cass's friends or something but I'm not sure. We'll see how it goes. But yeah, there'll be a little Bonnie/Kai thing happening before the end of the season. Thanks for the review!

**Pompeii1224: **Haha thanks! Sorry for the wait, but here's the chapter!

**Guest: **Thank you! Eh, not the next four any time soon but we're getting there. Exciting parts coming up next chapter :)

**klandgraf2007: **Yeah I thought that scene at the end was really nice and it was different. He will be reacting very...Damon-like when he finds out about Ethan and, because of the events leading up to him finding out about this random guy who comes out of nowhere, Damon's gonna have a lot of difficulty swallowing it and will become a little self-destructive with their progress so far, at least for one episode. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Sorry I tried to get this out as quickly as I could! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **I was working on SATs during Thanksgiving so I couldn't update then but I tried my hardest to get this out ASAP. Thanks for reviewing!

**Theresa5155: **Thank you! I really liked the way that their reunion turned out, too, and I am trying hard to make this dependency between Damon and Cass apparent so that their relationship can develop. Thanks so much! That is true, Elena made her bed and she needs to lie in it now and that's basically everything that's gonna happen over the next few chapters. Damon does deserve someone fresh. Thanks for reviewing! I definitely will.

**gloriacuevas391: **I don't know who that is, but cool. I mean, I picked Lucy Hale for Cassandra just because her appearance could suggest this sort of socially awkward teenager that I wanted to portray with Cass, being trapped in a prison world for such a long time. But at the same time, she also has this confidence and adult-like qualities that could apply.

**TvshowsManiac: **Thank you! I mean, I've been making sure to establish this dependency they have on each other over the last few chapters and in the next chapter, things are going to start getting real for Damon and Cass's social skills are kind of going to fail her. The way I'm structuring the S6 finale right now is actually pretty decent-ish and the way I want Season 7 to go is looking pretty good, depending on the rest of the season. Thanks for the review!

**rory: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **That would be one scary dream (or nightmare). Chapter's coming around the corner! Thanks for the review!

**nora: **Here's the update!

**nora: **Here's the update!


	12. I Would

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**I Would**

xxx

Cass couldn't believe her eyes. She was standing a few feet away from the little girl who had annoyed her to no end on Christmases with the Parker family because of all the gifts she'd gotten. This little girl was nothing shy of a beautiful twenty-two year old witch who looked like she had seen the horrors of the world at a very early age.

"Are you gonna stop staring any time soon?" Liv asked cautiously, not wanting to Cassandra, but also finding it to be a bit weird how her sister stared at her with a gleam in her eye that was sort of uncomfortable. Cass shook her head out of the funk she was in and smiled slightly.

"Sorry, Olivia. It's just been a...a really long time."

"I know." The blonde-haired witch smiled at her. "And I'm glad to see you, Cass. I'm glad you're safe."

"Not for long." Cass and Liv turned to watch as Tyler sauntered into the small office of his family's home, a concerned and slightly angry look in his eye. He looked from Cass to Liv and said heatedly, "And neither are you gonna be, not if you do this for her and Damon! I brought you to Mystic Falls to keep you safe from your crazy-ass witch family. You can't just leave because Damon wants you to do some spell!" The boy looked slowly towards the dark-haired girl and smiled carefully, adding, "No offense."

"None taken." Cass shrugged. Liv sighed and packed her Grimoire into her bag.

"So, what? I'm a prisoner here?" She narrowed her eyes. "Do I _look _like Rapunzel?"

Tyler hesitated for a moment, muttering, "Well, actually..." Sighing, Liv gathered up her things in a hurry and rushed out of the room, Cass following closely behind and Tyler rushing after them. "Look, why can't Luke do it?"

"Because he's busy enjoying his last few weeks as a singular twin with his sugar daddy radiologist...and I'd like to enjoy mine."

"Look, Matt, help me out here!" Tyler begged as Liv turned around at the threshold while Cass opened the door. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed human by the fireplace shrugged.

"I can't. It's for Bonnie."

"Thank you! At least he understands," Cass exclaimed as she held open the door and gave an apologetic look towards Tyler. "Look, I know you're worried about Olivia, but this is too important. Damon and I wouldn't be asking if it weren't important."

Tyler scoffed. "Then you don't know Damon very well."

"Tyler, I can't stay locked up in here any longer," Liv declared, ignoring Cass and Tyler's side conversation. "I'm out of clothes and I've had pizza for breakfast every day this week. We've gotta get back to our normal lives."

"If you leave and your coven finds you..."

"They'll make me merge with my brother," she finished. Her boyfriend straightened with a defeated sigh. "Hey, it's not all bad. If I survive, you'll be dating the all-powerful leader of the Gemini Coven. And if I don't..." Liv smiled. "You can date Luke!"

"I'll...meet you in the car," Cass told her sister as Tyler and Liv both went silent. Liv was about to turn and go with her when Tyler held her back, but Cass understood that it was time for the two of them to be alone for a moment. She walked down the steps of the Lockwood mansion and felt a buzz in her pocket from the phone Damon had gotten her from the store. As it rang, she tried to remember how to answer it, first turning the phone upside down and hesitantly bringing it to her ear before finally remembering to slide the green button at the bottom of the screen to answer the call just in the nick of time. "H-Hello? Hello?"

_"Easy, Cass. No need to shout," _Damon soothed her from the other side of the line. Cass smiled, a half-laugh escaping her lips as she heard his voice through the tiny little device.

"This thing is ridiculously awesome! I mean, it makes everything so much more convenient! It's a little confusing, but—"

_"Focus, Shakespeare. Focus. I know you're not used to it, but you'll get over it. You got the witch?" _

She frowned. "Yes, my sister and I are headed to the cemetery where you told me to go."

_"Good. By the way, I'm adding another time traveller to our bandwagon." _

Cass stopped. "Damon! It's hard enough Liv is going to have to do the spell for the both of us! I told you that I would go alone because it's gonna take a lot of magic to send me back...and after you insisted, that makes _double _the magic, but I don't think she can handle a third! Necessary parties only, please!"

_"She is a necessary party!" _

The brunette crossed her arms. "And who would be this 'she' you're referring to? You're girlfriend? Or ex-girlfriend? I forget what I'm supposed to call her. Damon, it's completely unnecessary for her to come!"

_"Cass, she wants to come, so she's coming. Book her a ticket with our witch, we'll meet you at the cemetery in twenty minutes." _

Without giving her much of an option, Damon hung up the phone just as Cass started to argue with him, knowing full well that she was relentless when she knew she was right. Cass let out a frustrated groan as Liv approached her, cocking an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?"

Cass spun around. "Damon's bringing his girl—I mean ex—don't know what the hell she is, but he's bringing her with us! And I tried to tell him that you're not gonna be able to handle three people but—"

"Elena?" Liv filled in with a shrug. "It's fine, she can go too. The Ascendant will do most of the work anyways."

The teenager paused for a moment, trying to figure out her response. She suddenly felt very small and...and sort of childish, but she sucked in a mature breath and nodded. "Well, um, okay then. Elena it is."

But there was something about the way her name slid off of Cassandra's tongue...she didn't like it. Not one bit.

Damon and Elena arrived on time, twenty minutes after Damon had rudely hung up on Cassandra. Cass was helping Liv set up for the spell when she heard Damon and Elena walking towards them and stood, watching as Damon gave her a small smile.

"Enjoy your morning, Shakespeare?"

She sighed and cleared her throat. "Yeah, it was nice to be in Mystic Falls again, even if it's magic-free at the moment." Cass looked at the brunette at Damon's side. "Hi, Elena."

The vampire gave her a warm smile. "Cass, right?"

"Cassandra."

Elena nodded once before turning over to Liv, who also stood from her position. She gave the witch a smile. "Hey. Thanks for doing this."

"Don't worry about it," said Liv. "I needed an excuse to get out of that frat house. Way too much boy. Gross." She looked at Damon. "You got everything?"

"Yup." He extended his hand with a small vial of thick red liquid floating inside. "Blood from a Bennett, Lucy to be exact. And an Ascendant from...whatever the hell your last name is."

"Parker," Liv informed him as she grabbed the Ascendant he extended to her and held it out in her palm. She looked down at it with a sigh. "So this is the famous Ascendant."

"Yup," Damon agreed.

"Surprised that Jo gave it up."

Elena's eyes snapped up, confused. "Why?"

"It's the only thing keeping Kai locked in his prison. If he gets out, he's coming after Jo."

"Well..." Damon sighed uncomfortably and slipped his hands into his pockets, "Good old Jo, heh, helping us out. Can we do this please?"

"Whatever." The blonde rolled her eyes. "So I'm gonna need the moon to activate the Ascendant. It will be viable for about eight hours, so once I send you over, the clock's ticking."

"And how do we get back?" Elena asked.

"Drink these," she replied, handing a small vial of red liquid to each of the three in front of her. Damon wrinkled his nose.

"What's that?"

"It's my blood. It'll link you to me so I can find you and bring you back. Give this one to Bonnie, too." Liv extended an extra vial for Damon to take and hold for Bonnie to drink. Cassandra eyed the vial in her hand and frowned at Liv.

"When you mean 'drink this'..."

"I mean 'drink it'. Sorry, Cassandra." Liv nodded at her and then looked back at Elena and Damon. "Are you waiting for a toast? Drink."

Damon tapped his bottle to Elena's for effect and Cassandra stared down at the vial with a wrinkle in her nose. As Damon and Elena tipped the vials back into their mouths with ease, her hand faltered to try and bring it up to her lips, relishing in disgust.

"Hmm. Bitter. I wonder why." Damon smiled at Liv, but before he moved on, he realized the witch beside him was having a hard time. Damon looked at her with a scoff. "It won't kill you, Cass. And if it does, I'll be sure to write you a great eulogy."

"Fuck off," she muttered under her breath before sighing heavily and finally tipping back the shot of her sister's blood she was forced to drink. When she finally finished every last drop, she chucked the vial with a shudder and nearly gagged, all the while noticing that everyone had been staring at her. She scowled at them. "Alright, show's over. Let's go."

Damon shrugged and grabbed the Ascendant from Liv, whereupon Elena and Cassandra put their hands beneath his. Liv took the vial of Bennett blood and reached forward, merely planting one drop on top of the Ascendant before inhaling sharply, beginning the spell. They listened to her chant under her breath while the Ascendant turned and Elena looked around like a lost puppy dog, watching as the blast of white light enveloped them.

Seconds later, Damon and Cass looked around, having reentered the hell they just left. Elena, on the other hand, was solemn a few feet away, staring down at an empty patch of dirt.

"Hey," Damon tried, catching her attention. She sighed.

"I used to come here every day after the accident. For months."

"This is where your parents are buried," he realized. She shrugged at him with a slight smile.

"Yeah, but not in 1994. In 1994, they were still alive."

"Yeah. So was Bonnie." He stepped forward and smiled at her cautiously. "So let's go get her."

Cassandra watched as Elena looked around, as if suddenly remembering that they weren't here to mourn her dead parents but to find Bonnie. Cass wasn't a cold-hearted freak, she did feel bad for the vampire. Bonnie had mentioned once that Elena's parents had died a few years back in their time and she had to admit that it was tragic. But it was merely irrelevant in their situation, considering what little time they had left. Therefore, she walked forward and looked at the both of them.

"Be careful of Kai. I don't know if he's still in Mystic Falls or not, but we can't take any risks."

Elena nodded and hummed an agreement to her, and finally the three of them moved out of the cemetery on their quest to recover Bonnie.

xxx

The Salvatore house had been their best bet to find Bonnie, and yet she was nowhere to be discovered. Elena shouted Bonnie's names through the halls, but no on responded. Damon came out to find Elena and threw up his hands.

"Nothing! You?"

"No," she said, exasperatedly moving over to the couch. "And...and I looked in every room."

"No luck in the basement," Cassandra added on as she entered the parlor through the foyer, tapping her fingers against her thighs in thought. "You don't think she decided to stay at her house, do you? I don't think she would, this place is just so much nicer..."

"Damon, you don't think that Kai—"

"Look let's not jump to depressing conclusions yet. Okay?"

"Um..." Cass cocked an eyebrow and lifted a throw pillow from the couch she was standing over, turning to look at Damon and Elena. She held up the pillow with a thick stain of red on the front. "You said something about depressing conclusions?"

Damon scowled. "And we're jumping."

He turned around sharply and went to the telephone in the corner of the room, where Elena, who was wide-eyed at the blood stain, asked, "What are you doing?"

"If Kai has Bonnie, we need to talk."

"So...you're gonna call him?"

"I'm gonna page him, actually." Elena gave him a confused look, where he shook his head. "Sorry. I forgot, you were two in 1994. Pagers are an ancient form of telecommunication."

"I know what a pager is." She rolled her eyes, but then, after a brief moment of hesitation, continued, "How does it work?"

"We dial jackass's number: 555-HIKAI..." He held the phone up to his ear and waited for the beep before explaining, "...we leave our number, and then we hang up."

She shrugged. "And now what?"

"And now we sit by the phone like a thirteen-year-old girl and wait."

"I'll be back," Cass announced as she walked past Damon and Elena, deciding that she really didn't want to spend another however many minutes with them where she was basically keeping her mouth shut and watching them and their weird tension. Shaking off the awkwardness, she walked from the parlor to the kitchen to grab herself a glass of water, only to find that Damon had followed her in. She scoffed. "It wasn't an invitation, you know."

"So you like your new phone?" Damon prompted with a small smile. As she poured herself some water, she cocked an eyebrow.

"...I'm sorry, does that imply that you care?"

"Oh, stop with the sourpuss, Cassandra. I know the prison world has a 'members only' policy, but I figured she could use a tour."

"It's fine. Whatever." Cass took a deep gulp from her water and shrugged. "And my phone is great. Thanks."

"Cassandra—"

"You know what? I'm kinda hungry." She put down her water and went to the pantry. "I think I'll make something to eat. You want something to eat? Does Elena want something to eat?"

Damon wanted to switch topics again, but instead, he realized that it was useless. When her back was to him, that meant that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. With a deep inhale, Damon just turned around and told her, "I'll...go ask her."

"Fantastic," she muttered sourly. In the back of her mind, she realized how childish it was to be angry over the fact that he pushed her to the side to spend the day with his ex-girlfriend/girlfriend, but she couldn't help but feel bothered. It was her and Damon's promise that they would get Bonnie back, not Elena's. It was like he couldn't do anything without her support or presence.

Damon left the kitchen to find Elena in the parlor with another voice—oddly, his voice. He looked over her shoulder as he entered to find the video camera he had hidden in one of the cabinets situated in her hand, so quickly, he rushed forward to take it.

_"Well, I am officially in hell. This place is my own, personal hell_..._what the hell are you doing here_—?" Before Elena could watch the rest, Damon snatched it out of her hand so it turned off, causing her to spin around sharply.

"Hey! What was that?"

"Uh...it's my...audition tape for 'Real World: London'. Fingers crossed! I think I'm gonna make it!" he lied. She crossed her arms impatiently.

"That was a video journal."

"What? No. Journals are lame. Especially video ones."

"Who came in at the end? I didn't see."

"Um...Bonnie. Yeah, Bonnie. I mean"—He shrugged—"of course I thought this was my personal hell, I was stuck here with her! What could be worse than that?"

Elena chuckled softly. "Damon—"

But before she could continue, the phone gave a high-pitched ringing. Damon pulled it from his hand and answered it on the second ring, just as Cassandra came running from the kitchen realizing who it was.

"Kai, if you so much as hurt one hair on her annoying little witch head, I will kill you and—" Damon threatened, but was interrupted halfway to a condescending girl voice.

_"That was so sweet. Why'd you have to ruin it by calling me annoying?" _

He opened his mouth, but Elena reached forward and ripped the phone out of his hand, shouting into the earpiece, "Bonnie?!"

_"Elena? Elena, is that you?!" _

The vampire smiled and turned around like she needed privacy. "Yeah! Yeah, it's me! I'm at the Salvatore house in...in 1994..."

Bonnie laughed happily over the phone. _"I-I can't believe I'm hearing your voice right now! How are you here?" _

"It's a long story. Just know that I'm here. To get you."

After Bonnie had told them what happened—that after Damon and Cass left, Kai had hunted her down before dragging her to Portland and then stealing her blood—Cassandra went to get an atlas from the study while Damon and Elena talked to her on the phone.

"So Kai just left you in Portland?" Elena asked. The phone was on speaker, so Damon could hear Bonnie's response.

_"Yeah, after cooking me Thanksgiving spaghetti and stealing my blood. It's been a strange few days." _

"Where is he now?"

_"Don't know. I hot-wired a car and I'm on my way back to Mystic Falls." _

"Hang on!" Elena exclaimed. "You hotwired a car? Who are you?"

_"A badass, apparently..." _

"Oh, tell them the truth Bonnie," Cassandra called out as she entered the kitchen with the atlas in her hand and a half-smile on her face. "You nearly electrocuted yourself when we started."

_"Yeah well, I somehow managed to not electrocute myself this time, thank you very much," _she laughed. _"You have the map, Cassandra?" _

"Right here. Ready when you are."

_"Muncie, Indiana. That's where this payphone is...apparently." _

"Well, Muncie's about six and a half hours away give or take a knuckle." Damon announced to her as he and Cassandra went over the map. Elena's eyes widened.

"Liv's pulling us out in seven."

"So if you don't stop to use the little witch's room anymore—"

_"I can make it in time. I'm coming home!" _

"You're coming home," Elena agreed with a smile up at Damon. He smiled back at her, and while the two stared at each other from across the table, Cassandra sighed and picked up the phone, taking it off speaker and turning her back to the vampires in the room, annoyed.

"Bonnie what car did you hotwire?"

_"I don't know...it looks sort of like Damon's I think? It sort of has a shotty engine though." _

"Okay...yeah. You're in Muncie right? Okay, there's a car dealership dealership right before you get on 127. You can't miss it. I want you to hotwire one of the high-priced Porsches or Bugattis, okay?"

_"But won't that take time?" _

"Trust me, you'll make up most of that time with the new car, you'll be home in no time. Just don't drive like a grandma and you'll be fine."

_"Okay. Thanks, Cass." _

"We'll see you soon, Bonnie. Now hurry!"

_"Okay, okay! Bye!" _

Cass smiled and, no matter what else she had on her mind, she felt so relieved that Bonnie was coming back with them. She hugged the phone to her chest for a moment before coming back to reality as she overheard Damon and Elena talking.

"You're worried about Kai," the teenager stated. Damon sighed.

"He's got Bonnie's blood and the Ascendant, he's got _everything_ he needs to get out."

"He doesn't just have everything, Damon." Cassandra turned around slowly, realizing exactly what he just had. They locked eyes as she took a deep breath and tried to control the fear that wanted to eclipse her entire body. "You know it. I know it. He's out. Which means—"

"Hey, it's fine." Damon cut her off, stepping forward and shaking his head. "It'll be fine. For all we know, he could have...have fallen into a ditch somewhere or something or maybe we got lucky and his plane crashed from Oregon to Virginia."

She scoffed. "Like that'll stop him. Face it, he's going to come after us. After _me_."

"Yeah, well, if he does, I'll kill him so fast, he won't even be able to lift a finger." Cass took a deep breath, and as much as she appreciated Damon's words, she knew that he wouldn't be able to carry through with it if Kai merged with Jo. That would mean certain death. Seeing the panic on her face, Damon changed the subject quickly, clapping his hands together. "Who's hungry? Elena? Cass? You said you were hungry before, how about I make some pancakes for old times' sake, huh?"

"Pancakes?" Elena repeated. Damon smiled and nodded.

"Pancakes. Tell her how good they are, Cass."

Cass took a seat at the table and sighed. "They're um...alright, I guess."

He slapped his hand down on the counter enthusiastically. "Yep! See, they're good. Come on, Elena, help me?"

"Sure." The brunette got up from the table and went behind the grill to assist Damon in cooking the food.

After a while, Cassandra got up and made sure that there were plates for everyone at the dining table so they could all eat the common breakfast. Only, it wasn't all that common, because Damon decided to pop a bottle of champagne right in Cassandra's face before flipping pancakes onto Elena's plate at a far distance. After a while, Cassandra stopped thinking so much about what was going to happen after they got out of the prison world again and started to focus on one very important fact: Bonnie was coming home.

"Bon appétit!" he exclaimed as they all sat down at the table to eat, Elena by his side and Cassandra on the opposite side of the table. As Damon sat down and started to pick up his fork and knife to eat his pancakes, Cass shouted.

"No! Wait, wait, wait!" she demanded, putting up her hand to stall him. Elena chuckled and watched as Cass shook the whipped cream can and reached forward to put tiny little fangs on Damon's blueberry pancake, making him smile and look up at her.

"Really, Cass?"

She licked her finger and said sarcastically, "Come on, Damon. Who doesn't like vampire faces on their pancakes?"

He shook his finger at her. "I knew I kept you around for a reason. Now come on, let's eat!"

As they both started to dig into the pancakes in front of them, they heard Elena laugh softly from beside, practically scoffing. "Okay...who mangled the crossword?"

Damon grinned. "Six letters. Illiterate witch...B."

Elena chuckled and moved to put the newspaper back, but as she did, something caught her eye. The newspaper article about Kai and the rest of his family was staring her right in the face, intriguing her. She lifted the newspaper back up and suddenly turned serious.

"This is about Kai and Jo."

"Yep." Damon nodded, his mouth full. "Kai's greatest hits. Staring us in the face...every day."

"If Kai's out, he's gonna go after Jo again!" Elena exclaimed, as if it were the first time she was really comprehending what that meant. Cass stared at her, wondering why she was suddenly so concerned when she supposedly knew what would happen all alone. "Damon, he's gonna kill her!"

"Well, if I have my Gemini rules down, actually, he's going to merge with her. Which will most likely result in her death..."

"Not most likely, Damon," Cass muttered, but didn't get a chance to elaborate as Elena pushed further.

"Then why would she give you the Ascendant?"

Damon paused putting his fork in his mouth with a piece of pancake on it. "Um...because I asked her very nicely?" Avoiding the rest of the topic, he dropped his utensils and narrowed his eyes. "You want some music...maybe? I'm gonna turn on some music."

He lifted his napkin from his lap and walked over to the stereo in the kitchen. Cass realized exactly what was going on right as he bowed his head and tried to avoid his pestering girlfriend.

"It was the one thing trapping Kai and she just...gave it to you?"

"Oh no..." the witch murmured, swallowing thickly as she recognized that the argument about to happen was not going to be a good one. She didn't know exactly what Damon had done to get the Ascendant, but she knew that Jo could not have given it to him. And judging by the way Elena was reacting, she didn't know that much about the situation.

"We have Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Boys to Men..." he hesitated and defended, "Stefan's."

"Damon!" Elena urged. He looked back at her and watched as she impatiently waited for an answer, and he realized he had no other choice. Damon sighed.

"Fine. She didn't give it to me. Alaric stole it from her."

"Alaric stole from her?!"

"After I...compelled him..." he finished. Cass's eyes widened and she sat at the kitchen table awkwardly as Elena pursed her lips with anger and threw herself up from the table, storming out of the room. Damon, without a second thought, followed her out, and Cass listened to their loud voices as they continued down the hallway.

"Elena, stop!" Damon demanded. She scoffed quickly.

"Of course you compel your best friend! I mean, why would that be off limits?!"

He yanked her arm and pulled her to a stop in front of the door. "I'm trying to get Bonnie back!"

"Oh just...no, don't! Damon, I want Bonnie back more than anything! She's my best friend. But to you, she's something else, isn't she? She's a chance for me to realize what a great guy you are so that I can fall in love with you all over again. Doesn't matter who gets hurt in the process." She gave him a disgusted look and turned on her heel to the door. "As long as _Damon _gets what _Damon _wants."

After a while, things went silent, and Cass waited as Damon slowly walked back to the kitchen, a peeved look on his face. She dropped their dishes in the dishwasher after clearing them and looked up at him, not saying a word. But since she was staring, Damon took that as another angered look and let out a frustrated sigh as he defended himself.

"Not you too! I only compelled him to get Bonnie back, okay? Jo was never going to give me the Ascendant and I didn't want to ask any more of you than I have already done because...because this whole situation is sensitive and I wanted to make things easier for everyone. I did not compel Alaric to win Elena back!"

Cass blinked incredulously. Sure, maybe the thought crossed her mind for a second because, well she wouldn't put it past Damon. But she knew him better than that. She knew he was doing what he was doing to save Bonnie, but what annoyed her was that he believed she was so shallow that she wouldn't trust his intentions.

"I'm sick of this, Damon. I'm sick of it!" She threw down a fork in her hand and leaned against the kitchen isle. He straightened. "You're defending yourself to me like I'll actually make a goddamn difference but I won't because I'm not your slutty girlfriend who decided to forget all about your relationship! I am not the back-up Elena, okay?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Why...why do I even bother? Nothing that I say will ever make any sense to you because I'm not her. It's not like you even notice me when she's around anyways, why would I think it's different when she's gone? No, Damon, I don't care about why you did what you did! Whether it was to win her back or to actually help someone other than yourself for once, I don't care! Because _I'm _here to get Bonnie back and you had to ruin it because your girlfriend is more important than your friend." She grimaced and bit her cheek, deciding not to say anything else. "You know what, I can't...I can't do this anymore. You abandoned me at the fundraiser and left me stranded, you didn't tell me what you were doing in Portland with Stefan and Alaric, and then you decide to bring her here like it was a vacation to Disneyland!"

He watched as she faltered for a moment, her cheeks getting red with anger before she started to walk out.

"Cassandra!" He called her name once and she hesitated, sort of twisting and turning around once or twice as if she were debating whether or not to stay or go. At last, she pointed a finger at him.

"You think I was mad at my dad, Damon? No. This is so much...I am...you infuriate me!" she shouted before storming off in a rage, leaving Damon completely confounded as to what the hell had just happened in the span of two minutes.

xxx

She had thought—hoped, really—that Damon wouldn't be stupid enough to come looking for her at the water tower. She was still pretty pissed off after what had happened at the boarding house, but maybe it wasn't entirely his fault. Honestly, she was so stressed about Kai, she forgot what she was even angry about. Still, when he ended up joining her at the water tower, she gave him the cold shoulder as he sat down beside her with a sigh.

"What are you doing here?" she muttered.

"I came to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you. Besides, shouldn't you be talking to your girlfriend? She seemed pretty upset."

"I would rather not right now, Cass. Listen, I know you're mad," he started. "And...and you don't have to talk to me. But I _need _you to know, Cass, that I did not do all of this for Elena. I want Bonnie back. For us."

She was silent for a while until finally muttering, "I never thought you did this for Elena. Though it wouldn't be too far off." He watched her as she looked off into the sunset and took in a deep breath. "Believe it or not, Damon, I actually believe you care about people other than yourself, unlike—"

"Stop doing that," Damon snapped. Cass looked over at him suddenly as he stared at her with anger tracing his eyes. "Don't say anything about Elena. You don't know her like I do. You have no right to talk about her like that."

Cass stiffened. "You're defending her? Seriously? Damon...how can you be so stupid?"

"What did you just call me?"

"You heard me! You're stupid! An idiot! A moron!" She let out a frustrated groan and tried to explain. "What is it with you? Why do you always choose the girls who don't believe you when you actually think about someone other than yourself? Who try to _change _you? Who make you into something that you're not?"

Damon's eyes widened in fury. "You don't know anything about me!"

"Oh really? So I don't know that Katherine was in love with Stefan before she was in love with you? I don't know that she manipulated you both into being pitted against each other? Then Elena came along and she fell in love with Stefan and you fell in love with her. And then, somehow...magically...overnight, she decided 'oh, hey, I think I made a pretty big mistake, you see, I _actually _meant to love Damon for the past two years but instead I ended up sleeping with Stefan! Oops!'? I mean, come on Damon, what about some self respect?"

"I have self respect!"

She widened her eyes. "You honestly think that having sex with your brother's girlfriend seconds after she breaks up with him is self respect? Let me tell you something, self respect is not falling for the girl that chooses you second!"

Unable to carry on the conversation without literally wanting to throw herself off of the water tower, Cassandra lifted herself from her seat on the edge and walked over to the ladder just as Damon got up and shouted at her from over her shoulder.

"Let's be honest here, Cassandra! What girl in their right mind would choose _me _first?"

"I would!"

It was like the whole world stood still. Her mind had disconnected from her mouth and once she had turned to face him, it spilled out without consent. Damon stared at her, shocked, and she felt like she had to say something, but there was nothing to say. What could she say? The words were so clear, there was absolutely no way for her to take them back. In that moment, she wanted to yet again throw herself off of the water tower, but she didn't get the chance. Instead, there was a shaking sensation, a white noise, and then, in the midst of the extremely awkward and painful moment, no matter how taken off guard they both were, they were back in the cemetery of present-day Mystic Falls with Elena only a few feet away from them.

"No!" the brunette shouted. "No, we shouldn't be back yet! Damon, we have another hour!" In the corner of her eye, she spotted Liv and turned with a snarl. "What did you do?!"

But not only was Liv standing in front of them, Tyler too. He shook his head.

"Kai is here. We have to get back to Mystic Falls before he takes any more of her magic," he explained, moving Liv across the border. Elena refused to accept it.

"No. Send me back first!"

Liv shook her head. "I can't."

"Bonnie was on her way. Send me back!" Infuriated, Elena marched forward and moved to lunge, but as she did, she crossed over the border of Mystic Falls, causing her to scream as her skin lit on fire.

Damon warned her that she was over the border while Tyler swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry, Elena."

But as they backed away, Cassandra sprinted up to the fence separating the cemetery and Mystic Falls, looking her sister right in the eye from a few feet away. She caught her breath and shook her head desperately.

"Olivia, _please_," she begged. "I know that Kai is here. I know that it's dangerous to do magic while he's on the loose but...but I need you to do this for me. Please!"

"I'm so sorry, Cassandra, I really am..." she trailed off, but ultimately refused, backing away with Tyler on her arm. "But I can't take that risk."

With an apologetic look, she and Tyler both turned and walked away, going further into the city they were unable to enter. Elena looked after them with agony, realizing Bonnie was in another world with no way out. Suddenly, she spun around with the Ascendant in her hand and shoved it at Cassandra.

"Y-You're a witch, right?"

Cass hesitated. It was true, but she didn't know the whole story. Damon didn't, either. The Italian Lira she hid under Alaric's mattress was starting to flash in her memory, but she could do nothing about it. She was incapable of the kind of magic that would send them back to the prison world unless she had all of it.

"Yes, I am, but I..."

"Then send us back! Please!"

"It's not that simple—"

"What's not simple about it?" the impatient vampire shouted, nearly on the verge of tears. "Bonnie's gonna get back to the house and we're gonna be gone!"

"I-I know but I can't do it. We'll have to find another way." She looked between Damon and Elena, who were both confused behind their judging eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, there was a voice behind them.

"Wait...are you guys talking about Bonnie Bennett?" Cassandra, Damon, and Elena whipped around to witness Kai smile as he leaned against a tree with a shrug. "Because, honestly, I didn't thinks he was all that great."

Before they could have time to react against his surprise arrival, Kai tossed the apple he had been gnawing on to the side and lifted his fingers in a simple, fluid motion, causing Elena to scream aloud as the Ascendant flew out of her hand and crashed into a tree. She flitted over and started to pick up the pieces as Kai faced off against Damon and Cassandra head-on.

"I am gonna enjoy the hell out of this," the dark-haired vampire mumbled before flashing up to the witch, right about to make a move. Instead, Kai lifted his hand and Damon dropped to the ground as a result of his magic. Kai grinned sadistically.

"Oh, hey, me too! Oh, yeah, Damon, I, uh, I stole some of Liv's magic when I tried to kill her. I think some of it still be in my system so...pardon me."

He lifted his hand and Damon was dragged down the cemetery, away from Cassandra, Kai, and Elena to prevent him from intervening. Kai turned his head and looked at Cassandra, who was standing next to him trying to figure out his next move. Kai tilted his head curiously.

"Hi, Cassie." She said nothing. "What? No hug?"

It was as if all her fears were coming true. Not only did Kai have magic and was finally out of his prison, she knew her magic wasn't strong enough to fight him. She knew she would lose if she tried. And on top of that hiccup, she was terrified; essentially shaking in her '90s converse.

"You weren't s-supposed to get out."

"Yeah, well, I did." He looked her up and down with a cocked eyebrow. "What's with the impasse, Cassie? I thought you had your magic back now. Don't you want to duel it out again?"

She didn't want to answer it because she knew she didn't have one. Instead, Malachai raised his hand and brought her mind to a screeching halt, causing her to double over with her hair in her hands as if she were pulling at her scalp. She knew she wouldn't do enough damage, but the pain in her head made her want to slap Kai six ways until Sunday. In a feeble attempt to attack back, she loaded her magic and pushed it on him with full force, cutting off Kai's air circulation as he continued to cause her insufferable pain. She could feel the magic start to let up on her and attempted to put more magic on what she had punished Kai with, but at last, it wasn't enough for her murderous older brother to collapse. Instead, when he overcame the magic, he fought back twice as hard, virtually slapping her so she spun around and finally collided against the roots of a tree fifty feet from him, at which point, she couldn't stop what was next.

Kai walked over to Elena, the shaking vampire who had desperately dove after the Ascendant to gather the pieces. He bent down and tsked.

"Ah, ah, ah..." Elena's breath hitched as she saw him squatting not two feet from her. "You missed one."

He extended her hand and he dropped the piece onto the others while lighting the parts on fire. The flames grew onto Elena's arm, and she desperately shouted as she tried to extinguish the flame. As Elena burned, Damon finally gathered enough strength to stand up on his own to feet and flit over to Kai, who he had knocked out of the way, but had then become invisible to Damon's eyes, a Parker family trick. Knowing all to well, Damon grabbed the nearest branch he could find and swung it around him until he watched as a now visible Malachai was swung across the cemetery and onto the other side of the border. Cassandra sprinted over, a small cut on her head from where she had hit the tree, but stopped short as she saw Kai get up from landing on the ground so harshly from Damon's throw. Elena finally stood and shook her arm free of the flames while Kai lifted himself up from his stomach and sighed heavily.

"Huh," he pursed his lips and gestured in front of him—the border. "I guess this that, uh, anti-magic border. Which means now there's a psycho loose in Mystic Falls...and no vampires around to stop him. Whoops."

Damon and Elena stared with disgust, and Cassandra watched for a moment while she decided what to do. In a foolish, idiotic, completely insolent idea, she took only a half-step forward before Damon reached out and yanked her back from crossing the border.

"He's not worth it," Damon snarled, partially directing his comment to Kai. Cass shook his hand off of her arm and stared at Malachai, who smiled.

"It's not like you could hurt me, anyways, Cassie." He tilted his head. "Shitty magic _and _strength. It kinda sucks to be you."

And finally, with nothing left to say, Kai backed up further into Mystic Falls and left Damon, Elena, and Cassandra to watch with no other options left but to let him go.

xxx

Cass barely heard it when Damon had finally come back to Alaric's place because she was too preoccupied with throwing all of her new clothes, still bearing the price tags, into a duffel bag Alaric had allowed her to use. Although she didn't hear him come in, if she were a betting woman, she would put money on the outcome that he would go straight to shower or something that didn't involve talking to her after what happened on the water tower. Of course, then, she would've lost all her money.

"I left Bonnie a note at the house," Damon began softly while Cass froze at the sound of his voice. He leaned against the threshold of Alaric's room, as he had graciously allowed Cassandra to sleep in the bed while they stayed with him. Albeit Alaric just punched him out for compelling him, but he figured he needed to find Cass first before figuring out another means of rest for the night. "I told her we would be at the water tower. She'd probably be there now with about a half an hour to spare, thanks to your car swap suggestion. She sacrificed everything for us to bring us back here and then...we were supposed to be there for her. To take _her_ home this time. She's all alone."

Cass listened to him, her back turned, unwilling and desperate to not let him see her cry. She held it in, trying hard to make her breathing even so it wouldn't set off his vampire-sensitive hearing. But just the thought of Bonnie being there, up on the water tower, desperate to find them made her feel like crawling up into a hole and staying there forever. It wasn't supposed to be that way. None of it was supposed to happen.

"Cass?"

"I'm fine." She took in a deep breath and unfroze, wiping her eyes and walking over to the closet to grab her shoes and throw them in the bag as well, all the while avoiding direct contact with Damon's eyes. "Look, I know you tried to stop me earlier, but I'm not gonna sit on the other side of the border and wait anymore. I'm going to Mystic Falls."

Damon scoffed. "You're kidding me. It's not safe, Cassandra."

"Yes it is. He doesn't have any magic over there."

"Yeah, but he's still a murdering psychopath! He'll kill you and won't think twice about it!"

She zipped up her bag and, still resisting any eye contact with the vampire in front of her, turned around and slipped past him. "Yes, I am very aware of his reputation, thank you very much. But I'm not staying here. I'm going to stay at the boarding house and don't worry, I'll make sure your bourbon decanter is full."

Damon followed her out of the room with an aggravated groan. "You know, Elena's brother is staying there."

"Wonderful! Maybe we can become best friends."

"Cassandra...Cass, stop this!" As she reached the door to open it, Damon came up swiftly behind her and lifted his hand above her head, refraining the door from opening even the slightest bit. She turned her cheek as he exhaled, his breath on her neck, as if contemplating what he was about to say like he hadn't already thought of it before he decided to invade her personal space. She still refused to look at him. "I can't protect you if you're not with me."

At this, she scoffed angrily and turned around. "Have you ever given thought to the fact that I don't _need_ or _want _your protection, Damon?!"

"Funny! Because I seem to recall Kai saying something about your shitty magic before he left. Why didn't you tell me you don't have all your magic, Cass?"

"I shouldn't have to, Damon! The fact that the world isn't shaking right now means that most of my magic is somewhere safe." She stared at him for a moment before whispering, "You aren't a part of my crazy family issues, Damon. You dropped in unexpected and...and basically ruined everything. I was fine without you for twenty years and I'll be fine without you now."

As if enough things hadn't gone her way in the past 24 hours, she couldn't stop the tear that managed to escape her eyes, throwing Damon completely off guard. She turned her head, but he only reached out and, as if in an otherworldly trance, wiped them away like they never happened. She watched him and felt him and realized...she couldn't handle it anymore.

"Let me leave," she demanded, flinching away from him. "Please."

It was a few moments after she had said something that Damon realized what he had done. In that time, she had backed away, opened the door, and fit herself out of a small crack without saying a single word to him. He stood in the doorway, standing...thinking...contemplating. And as she closed the door, she covered her mouth and tried not to let him hear her tears as she paused for a split moment and then walked away like she should have five months ago.

xxx

The boarding house was exactly the same as she left it, which was somewhat strange considering she left it ten years in the past. When she entered the house, she expected to find Elena's brother, the one that Damon had mentioned before she left, but although she called out a greeting to anyone in the house, no one was there. Once she dropped her stuff in the room she had taken back in the prison world, she decided that staying in a big, empty house that was a reminder of all the horrible things that had gone wrong in the past couple months was not a good idea. So she grabbed her keys and off she went to the Mystic Grill, which she assumed had been reopened after the explosion before Bonnie and Damon joined them.

_No more talk about them, _Cass thought to herself as she ordered a drink from the bar. _Just stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop_—

"Cassie?"

She turned around, drink in hand, but she wasn't afraid. If it had been the other voice who liked to use that name as much as this one did, she would've been so terrified, she wouldn't breathe. Instead, she was genuinely surprised—both pleasantly and heartbreakingly.

Ethan Davenport stood before her with a small smile, waiting for her acknowledgement.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thank you! :)

**Pompeii1224: **She'll probably see Luke again in a later chapter, I haven't decided yet. But she did see Liv! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **It's actually been a while since I saw the S6 finale so maybe something will change but I don't really have an answer right now. Thanks! Bonnie and Kai won't necessarily be a "thing" but Cass and Bonnie will definitely talk about the possibilities once they're reunited. Thanks for the review!

**WickedlyMinx: **Here it is! Thanks for the review!

**LMarie99: **Thank you! They got pretty close in this chapter :) Only a few more until the good stuff.

**Guest: **Thanks! Sorry for the wait on this chapter. Yeah, I had SATs and then finals and all sorts of school stuff to handle but I'm on a week break now after finals so I was able to update :) Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Thank you! Haha, I mean, you picture who you want to picture. Thanks for the review!

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Isn't she rude? Lol. Thanks for reviewing! Here's the update.

**Guest: **Here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!

**sbritt264: **Thank you! Here's the update.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **My thoughts exactly! Thanks for the review.

**Guest: **Because she's Elena and she ruins everything :P Thanks for the review.

**Guest: **There was definitely a lot of Cassandra and Damon in here, and trust me, this is only the beginning. Thank you! Here's the update!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the update.

**Guest: **None of the above. I'm so sorry I had so much going on over break and over the past week, but I appreciate the enthusiasm! Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Guest: **Here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!

**Ssss: **Here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest:** Not New Years', unfortunately. I was in a car all day long. But here's the update. Thanks for reviewing!

**klandgraf2007: **Oh yeah. It's definitely on between them now that Cassandra's also kind of confessed to Damon that she might care for him in more than just a sex-only way or a friends-only way. Haha yeah, definitely screwed up. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **I don't really have a set schedule on when I update, it's more of whenever I can get a chance to sit myself down and finish writing the chapter. Sometimes I'll write chapters in two days and sometimes it'll take me like 6 weeks so it's kind of a toss up. Thanks for the review!

**addicted2memories: **Wow that's a lot of reading! Oh good, I'm glad you liked it. Here's the update! Damon does deserve someone who picks him first and that's kind of going to be the whole dynamic of their relationship because Cassandra sees that he deserves more than some priss who decides she's gonna sleep with every guy until she gets one that's 'just right' for her. I mean, I tried not to speed it too fast, but you can kind of see Damon questioning himself a lot in the last couple chapters and even in this one, you know? And Elena forgetting about him is just the cherry on top. Elena only remembers after she takes the Cure, but that's a whole other story that we'll be getting into soon. Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing!

**Guest: **She was so terrified in this chapter that it made me scared lol. Here's the chapter! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Hahaha, no worries!


	13. It Was Never the Way We Were

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**It Was Never the Way We Were**

xxx

_"Hello?! How do you work this damn thing? Is it recording? Oh, it's recording! Hi, you've reached Cassandra Parker, um...um, what am I supposed to say after that? Uh...have a good day?" _

Damon listened as the tone beeped out Cass's awkward voicemail message and he took a frustrated breath in through his mouth. She hadn't answered his calls since she had stormed out of Alaric's apartment the night they had gotten back from their visit to the prison world. He was so worried, he couldn't see straight. Not only was she avoiding his calls, but since Alaric and Jo were so pissed at him, he couldn't even ask them if they had heard from her about her safety. It was driving him insane not knowing whether she was dead or alive.

"Cass!" Damon barked into the phone. "It has been more than 12 hours since I heard from you! Are you trying to give me a legitimate heart attack? Granted, it won't kill me, but...but still! Call me back."

The vampire hung up the phone quickly as Elena sat beside him, bearing a cup of coffee and a smile. "Here you go. Figured we could use the energy since we've been here all night trying to find a way to bring Bonnie back."

Damon took the coffee graciously after tossing his phone aside with an attitude of sorts. "Thanks."

Elena nodded once and looked down at the phone as she took a sip of her coffee and then asked wearily, "So...have you heard from Cassandra, yet?"

"No. She keeps dodging my calls."

"Why?"

"I don't know! Because she's trying to be brave or...something." Damon gulped down his coffee and set it aside with a shake of his head. "That girl is too stubborn for her own good. Like who does she even think she is? She can't protect herself against Kai and yet...there she goes, gallivanting into the anti-magic town where no one except..._Matt Donovan _will be able to protect her."

Elena stared at Damon, watching as he bit his cheek with a fury she hadn't seen before and couldn't quite put a finger on it. "I'm sure she'll call soon."

"She better."

xxx

Ethan stared down at Cassandra's phone as she blankly ended the call without so much as looking at the Caller ID. She knew who it was after the first twenty times he tried calling her, and the last thing she wanted to do was have a conversation with Damon Salvatore, especially in her current situation. Ethan and Cassandra had been up all night at the Grill until the place had closed down and, luckily, struck a deal with the manager to let them stay overnight. They talked little, mostly about what had happened while they were apart for so long. Of course, it shortly turned into morning, where the waitresses at the Grill opened up the bar and a few people floated in and around for breakfast.

"That's like the tenth time in the last hour." Ethan chuckled as he wrapped his hands around his coffee and shifted forward slightly. "Don't you think it might be important?"

Cass scoffed. "It's never important with him."

"Who is 'him'?"

"It doesn't even matter." She leaned back in her chair, rubbed her eyes, and sighed heavily. "Do you ever just have those times...those times when you say something and then hours later, you so desperately wish you hadn't been stupid enough to say it in the first place?" When she opened her eyes, she found Ethan cocking an eyebrow at her, confused. Her lips turned down in a frown. "So it's just me, then?"

"Cassie, what happened?" he stared at her, his eyes full of concern as he leaned forward and waited for her to look at him. "I've never seen you like this. What could you possibly have said to make yourself so miserable?"

"Trust me, you don't even want to know." She shook her head and leaned forward as well, but decided not to talk about it anymore. "Anyways, where were we? I was telling you about how Kai came to me and told me there were people in the prison world, right?"

"Cassie—" She moved on quickly so he couldn't get a chance to ask about Damon. Ethan realized these evasion tactics, but disregarded his intrigue and let her speak.

"So I realized he was right and I traced the magic all the way to this town, Mystic Falls. I found two people there. A vampire and a Bennett witch. I lied to them, told them I was the only one there, to protect them from Kai. Kai found us, though, and he threatened us until he had his way out. But when Bonnie, the witch, was doing the spell to send us home, Kai attacked her and she sacrificed herself to save us. She's still there."

Ethan's lips twinged. "That must've been...so hard for you."

"It was. It was hard for the both of us." She looked down at her coffee, again thinking about Damon Salvatore. _Damn it, Cassandra, stop that. _In an attempt to get it off her mind, her eyes snapped up and she looked at Ethan with a small smile. "So, tell me. I want to know about your life, your marriage, your kids. I know it's weird, I know...I know it's hard for us, but I want to know."

He hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing, leaning back with a soft shrug. "I met Ronnie when I went off to University College London, a year after you disappeared. We dated for a while, then she got pregnant with Violet, our oldest. We got married a few weeks after we found out and then a few years later we had Wilma and Natalia."

Cassandra smiled, though it was hard for her to muster. "They're beautiful kids, Ethan."

He could see the pain in her eyes; he wasn't stupid. He felt the jealousy from all the way across the table, but he realized it wasn't because of his marriage. It wasn't because she wished it were her that had married him and had kids. It ran deeper than that. The pain her eyes resembled that of what he'd seen in Ronnie's cousins, the thirty-something adults who longed for a life like that. It then dawned on him that she was jealous of his life, that she wanted it. She wanted children, she wanted a marriage. He couldn't explain to her how much he wanted that for both of them.

"They are." His voice dropped to a whisper as his fingers drummed on the coffee cup. "They grow up fast, you know. Wilma and Natalia are almost in middle school."

"And Violet?"

"Freshman at Florida State. It was the farthest she could get from us." He chuckled under his breath and she let out a small laugh. She remembered when she used to be that way, after the anger at her parents for sending her off to other members of the family had dissipated at last. All she wanted after that point was to be away from them. Cass wondered how Ethan felt about it, but he didn't look too bothered; merely a typical father who understood but, at the same time, missed his daughter dearly. "So have you thought about what you're going to do when this is over?"

She looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean once this ends...when Kai is gone. You know, when the dust settles." He shrugged at her. "Did you ever think about going to college or something?"

Cassandra muttered a small laugh under her breath and shook her head. "I wish I could say for sure that this _will _end. Things are different now, Ethan. I'm not just an eighteen-year-old girl at a boarding school waiting for my life to begin. I've practically been frozen for twenty years and at this rate, my life will never begin. Not with Kai still out there."

"Do you have a plan to stop him?"

"I'm sure someone does." She brought her coffee to her lips and drank slowly before continuing, "But right now...right now, I don't know anything. I don't know how to get out of this."

They were quiet for a while. Ethan stared at her from across the table, watching as she skillfully avoided his gaze. After a moment or two, though, he leaned forward and lowered the volume of his voice as he spoke to her. "Cassie, your magic is...stronger than anyone's, even Kai's. If you could just—"

"I can't." He was cut off by the abruptness in her voice and her urgency to quit talking about it. "I can't do that. I can't use it anymore. I won't."

"Why not?"

"Because!" It was a little louder than she intended, and it caused some early stragglers in the restaurant to look at her weirdly. Ethan and Cassandra paused for a moment, giving their neighbors an apologetic smile before she turned to him and whispered under her breath, "I will not mess with that magic again. Not after what happened that day."

"So what? You're just gonna live the rest of your life with barely enough magic to light a candle?"

"It's not your decision." She looked up at him coldly and he realized that he had angered her, which was never his intention. Quickly, he watched as she forced herself up from the seat and reached into her pocket, where she threw down a ten dollar bill and shook her head vigorously. "I can't talk about this. I can't...can't do this anymore! I have to go."

"Cassie, wait..." But before he could say anything, she was turned around and halfway out the door. Ethan, determined not to let her get away for a second time, grabbed his jacket, threw down his own ten dollar bill, and rushed after Cassandra, who seemed to be moving at the speed of lightning. She stepped out into the morning light and turned to the parking lot, where she unlocked her car and moved to get inside. Instead, Ethan caught her just as she opened the door of her car. "Cassandra, stop. Don't leave."

She turned around at him and threw her hands up. "What are you doing here, Ethan? We said what we needed to say. We made peace. I let you go."

"I haven't said what I need to say." He watched her as she stiffened and involuntarily listened. Ethan took an unstable breath. "I haven't made peace, Cassandra. I can't let you go yet."

"Why?" she whispered. "Don't you realize what this is doing to me? You're tearing me apart."

"I know. I know, and it's selfish and I hate it. But I can't let you go, Cassie. I can't. I still love you but I can't...I can't _do _anything about it. "

"Try."

"I am!"

"What will it take, then?" Cassandra snapped her eyes up to meet his and shook her head in disbelief. "You want to turn back the clock twenty years? Yeah, well, I want it too, Ethan. You think I 'made peace' with the fact that you're married and happy and domesticated while I've been suffering the same day of my own personal hell for the last two decades? Of course not! But I'm dealing with it, Ethan. I'm letting you go. I would think that you'd have the decency to do the same for me."

She turned around to her car, but as she reached for the handle, her hand froze. Cass couldn't bring herself to do it. She couldn't bring herself to get in the car and run away again. Not for the second time. He was right behind her, standing so close she could almost smell the Calvin Klein cologne as it seeped through her pores. She remembered what it was like back then, back at Greenwich boarding, when he didn't smell like Calvin Klein but rather sour alcohol.

xxx

_She could hear the distinct sound of thumping from a room down the hall. It was the music shattering the walls, making them throb so fast her head was spinning. Cassandra sat in her dull, boring room that looked as if she were in a college dorm. She'd never felt so far form home. Not only was she away from her parents, but rather an entire country away. An entire culture of things she did not understand. _

_There were no family members to control her magic this time, only a family friend who taught at Greenwich Boarding, which was the reason her parents had chosen that particular school in London. Yet, that family friend did not know about magic, only that her parents wanted to send Cassandra away from home for a year. After exhausting so many relatives to attempt to teach Cassandra how to control her magic, they gave up. They sent her to an entirely different country to wreck havoc on her own. _

_But the music was so loud she could not think. And when she could not think, she could not control. When she could not control, bad things happened. She sat at her desk, trying to finish off some homework from her Literature class. But try as she might to read the passage on the page and answer the following questions, she could not stop tapping her pencil against her desk. _

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. WOOSH. _

_Her eyes refocused to find that the pencil in her hand flew back and hit the opposite wall, the led penetrating the layer of chipped mint green paint. Cass stared at the pencil at the wall for a few moments, and then her eyes tore away from it and she abruptly forced herself up from the desk and started to pace around the room. She could feel the magic heating at her fingertips hearing the thump, thump, thumping of the wall next door, and she was near about to explode. _

_That's when the door swung open, almost violently, and scared her so badly that she nearly jumped three feet in the air. Looking to the door, she found that her roommate, Cecilia, was in the midst of an intense make-out session with a boy in her Home Education class. _

_They must've noticed that the lights were on, because they realized there was something strange about the room and broke their indicative kiss to look around, confused. That's when Cecilia noticed Cassandra and her face grew red with embarrassment. _

_"Bloody hell!" Cecilia breathed softly. Cassandra was more confused than anything, and the magic at her fingertips slowly dissipated because of it. "I'm so sorry, Cassandra, I didn't know you were in here. I thought I saw you at the party." _

_Cassandra cleared her throat. "Um, no." _

_"You should really go over there," the boy urged, a social cue in his eye she couldn't quite pick up on. He was American, and she distinctly remembered him saying something about being the son of a wealthy Fortune 500 CEO of New York. "It's bangin'!" _

_Cass wanted to protest, but she could see the urgency in both Cecilia and the boy from her class's eyes. She knew what that look stood for. They wanted her to leave. So without saying much more, she nodded and walked out of the room, whereupon the door was practically slammed behind her. When she was out in the hallway, that's when she realized that she had no other choices but to go to the party or stand in the hallway like a loner. She could hear the thumping of the music, but before she let it get to her, she decided to check it out. What was the harm? _

_The harm was that it was crowded, it smelled, and she could see some very not appropriate things going on in corners of the room that she did not care to see. It was a scene so far out of her place that she didn't even know where to begin. Alcohol surrounded her, cigarettes blazed everywhere, and men and women mixed on the dance floor with the sole intention of making everyone else uncomfortable by playing a game of 'who can dance the sexiest'?_

_It was definitely not her scene. She could feel the stress in her stomach and quickly, before anything got out of hand, decided to turn around and leave. But her abruptness had consequences, as she turned around and found herself spilling beer all over some poor guy's shirt._

_"Shit!" he cursed under his breath. Cassandra's eyes widened._

_"I am so sorry!" _

_"It's fine. It's..." He looked up and noticed the girl who had run into him, and Cassandra shook her head at the stain. Inside, she was cursing herself for being so daft. "It's my bad. Should've looked where I was going." _

_Cass gave him a sad smile. "Now you'll smell like beer all night." _

_"Well, that's not any different from how everyone else smells." They both laughed. "I'm Ethan, by the way. Ethan Davenport." _

_"Parker...Cassandra, um," he could tell she was nervous, but it intrigued him as she swallowed and corrected, "Cassandra Parker." _

_"Cassandra," he repeated, but scrunched up his nose. "It's too long. If you're gonna be at Greenwich for a while, you're gonna need a nickname." She looked up curiously and watched him smile at her. It was a large, flirtatious grin that nearly made her swoon. "Cassie. Cassie's a good fit." _

_During that entire time, she'd forgotten that she had powers. She'd forgotten that she'd had magic. She'd forgotten that the magic she possessed controlled her at every aspect. In that moment, she'd forgotten all her troubles as Cassandra Parker and merely continued as Cassie. _

xxx

"Cassie?" Ethan touched her elbow, softly but with heavy meaning. Cassandra turned her head away from him, knowing that there were tears coming out of her eyes. In her head, she cursed herself a million times. What was with all the crying lately? She wanted to keep it from him, but he was the one person she couldn't do that with. He knew the second something was wrong. "Cassie? Cassie, look at me. Turn around, tell me what's wrong."

"Everything." Sharply, she turned, swatting away the tears at her eyes. His look turned from concerned to deeply worried and looking to console. She tried to contain herself, but she'd kept her tears in long enough. "Everything is wrong, Ethan. My life is a straight-up _mess_."

"Is this about Kai?"

"It's always gonna be about Kai! When is it ever _not _about Malachai?" She scoffed under her breath, but then shook her head. "No. No, this isn't about Kai, Ethan. Not anymore."

They were silent for a while. Seconds, minutes...she didn't really know. All she knew was that she tried to collect her breath to think about what she had said, but before she could even comprehend how to defend herself or take back the words that she had vomited, Ethan asked her a very simple question.

"Who is he, Cassie?"

An hour or so later, Cassandra and Ethan were walking around the town square, each holding a cup of ice cream in their hands as a way to pass the time. At this point, Cass had calmed down and he had managed to get the truth out of her. He'd found out who 'he' was: Damon Salvatore, the dark-haired, blue-eyed vampire with whom she'd spent four months in the Prison World with after Kai had caught up to her and told her that there was magic back in their world. Ethan filled in the rest, the fact that he was the one who had escaped with her when the Bennett Witch had sacrificed herself and that there was an underlying connection between the two of them that he will never attempt to understand.

"I don't know why we...why we ever started..." Cassandra inhaled softly, taking a break from her chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Ethan stared at her from beside, watching her face as she shuddered as if thinking about it. "He's arrogant, dark, and...and impulsive_. _I know this. I've seen this. And after the first night, I promised myself that it wouldn't happen again. And then it did. And I promised that it was just one more night, but the next night the same thing happened. It doesn't make sense."

"Why not?"

"Because he's dysfunctional, Ethan!" She nearly began to laugh as she turned to him and stopped them in the pathway in the middle of the town square. "I mean..._we're _dysfunctional! I stopped using my head after a certain point, and I don't know why. It was like a safety valve for me, after being so alone for so long. And I thought I would be okay coming back here and quitting. I thought that it would work, but I can't seem to let it go. Every time I see him with Elena...it _hurts." _

Ethan bit his lip. Maybe, she realized, it wasn't a good idea to tell him these things. But who else could she tell? She had no friends in this world. Bonnie was her only friend, and she was stuck in 1994 because Liv backed out of her word and Kai destroyed the Ascendant and she was too afraid to use her magic. Eventually, he responded.

"So what do you think that means, Cassie?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't know." She sighed. "It would be too complicated for me to get involved with him again. One more night turns into two, which turns into three, which turns into...more. But he's a vampire and I'm a witch. Ever since I came back, I started aging again. Either way, this ends badly."

"Yeah, but that's not what I asked. I know it's complicated, Cassie, but there's only one question you really need to answer." She waited for him and she felt as if it took him forever to get it off his chest. She didn't doubt that it hurt him to ask, but it was only fair. He was married, he had kids, he had moved on. She wanted, desperately, to do the same. "Do you have feelings for him?"

And as he said the question that she'd anticipated ever since she began to talk about her complicated relationship with the impulsive vampire, she'd found that there was no good answer she could come up with. Did she have feelings for him? Sure. However, they were conflicting feelings. On one side, she realized how wrong it was to care for him. She realized how unrealistic it was for her to want him. She realized how moronic it was to think that he would care for her over Elena, the girl to whom he was so blindly devoted. But there was that part of her that yearned for the Damon she interacted with when they'd danced at the grave. There was that ache in her stomach that needed him to fulfill her desires. Her heart pounded at the sight of him, her emotions sporadic. Did she have feelings for him? Feelings that went beyond lust and need? That wasn't the question that should be asked. The question of whether or not he would reciprocate those feelings were just as important as any.

"I think it's complicated," she answered truthfully. But he didn't buy the answer. "And I think...I think that no matter what I do, he's going to be in love with Elena. I think that it doesn't matter anymore."

"Cassie, I don't believe that." Cass knew it hurt him to think about her with someone else, so it hurt him to defend that person to her. "I think it does matter. I don't think he would disregard your feelings and pretend like they didn't exist. I think there's something deeper going on."

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter, Ethan. It doesn't. Because I don't know what I want when it comes to him."

"You told him you would choose him first. Doesn't that mean something to you?"

"It means that I'm conflicted! That I find it _appalling _he could stand to be with someone who would choose him second like he's an afterthought. I would choose him first, if I had to. I would."

It was only after the words were said that she realized she shouldn't have said them. Not to the person she was talking to. She was about to apologize to him when he closed his mouth and suddenly reached forward, grabbing her ice cream and his and throwing them away in the nearest trash can. Her mouth dropped open.

"What are you doing? That was my ice cream! I was really looking forward to eating that with the crappy week I've been having..."

"Come on." Ethan reached forward and grabbed her hand, pulling her with him. "We're gonna go take a drive."

xxx

"What is this?" Cassandra asked as she and Ethan reached the border of Mystic Falls. He pulled over on the side of the road, right outside of the anti-magic barrier. She could feel the bit of magic inside of her pull back, but it was barely a stretch. That sliver of magic that had managed to stick inside of her was so small that she could barely feel it anymore, but she knew when it was present, at least. Ethan got out of the car and shrugged his shoulders.

"You said Mystic Falls has an anti-magic border, right?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Because you can't keep doing this to yourself, Cassie." He stepped forward and clasped her hands tightly in his. It felt good, to touch his warm hands after such a long time. It was reassuring. She found comfort in them, and a part of her didn't want to let go. His grey eyes locked on hers intensely. "Your magic defines who you are. It's always defined who you are. You wouldn't be _you _if you hadn't been moved around as a kid, if you hadn't been outcasted for having such powerful magic. You're losing who you are, Cassie."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. That magic isn't _good _magic. It's dark, it's violent. I know it might seem like it, but I can't pick and choose how much magic I have. I can only hold onto a little bit at a time but if I try to take on a reasonable amount, I'll just end up taking it all back. And trust me, that's not a good thing."

"Says who? Says your parents?"

"Says everyone! Ethan, you don't understand what that magic is capable of."

"Yes, Cassie. I do. I remember it." He stared at her, refusing to let her back down. "I remember we were sitting in the courtyard when you told me. It was when you first told me about your magic and I asked you to show me. You sat there and you made _time stop_, Cassandra. You reigned a storm miles away and you made time stop. I will never forget that as long as I live."

She squeezed his hands sorrowfully. "Then you know how dangerous it is, Ethan. That's not the kind of magic that's normal or...or stable. One bad move and I'm wrecking Hurricane Andrew across the Eastern Seaboard."

But Ethan didn't listen. All he did was step back, letting go of her hands. She felt empty inside, like something was missing from her. Something had been missing for a very long time.

"I remember that, Cassie. I also remember how you controlled it when you were around me. Because you loved me. Because you cared about me." He nodded to her. "You have that here. You have someone that you care about, that you don't want to see get hurt. You can control it again, all you need is that person."

Her heart ached, and she realized that he didn't understand how much it hurt for her to care for Damon. Caring for Damon was like falling into a black hole, a deep abyss of psychological problems and a forty-page list of ex-girlfriends. He was of a dark nature, and she had to admit that she was, too, but she'd like to think that she wasn't all bad. That the magic didn't 'define' her as Ethan had suggested. But what if he was right? What if she was defined by her magic, and what if that was making her so miserable? What if that emptiness that she thought would be filled by the presence of Ethan back in her life was really just a placeholder? What if magic was the solution?

So, with shaking hands, she reached inside of her pocket and grabbed the tiny Italian Lira she had been carrying around ever since retrieving it in the frozen world she had accessed back in the Prison World. She could feel the heat from her magic, and she wanted to take it back so badly. But was it the right choice? Could she control it like she used to? Could she manage not to use all of it, as she had for the Prison World spell? Could she retain her dignity while being condemned the darkest, most powerful witch of her coven?

Most importantly, would Damon be enough to prevent her magic from getting out of control?

But what if she didn't need Damon? What if she could do it on her own? What if controlling it came from the years of self-determination all of those years escaping Kai after his murderous rampages? She didn't know what would happen. Maybe tomorrow she would wake up and the world would start shaking from the absorption of her magic. Or, perhaps, maybe flowers would spring from the trees and the world would be a better place. It dawned on her that she didn't know what was next, and all she could do was try.

Ethan nodded her to continue, and Cassandra took a deep breath in. Could she really do this?

Her thumb lingered over the Lira, hesitating with uncertainty, but in one second she made a decision. Like she had done so many other times.

xxx

_It hadn't been as long as when she'd stayed in California with her Aunt Vera, but it was close. She had stayed at Greenwich for about a year, from when she had nearly turned 17 to her 18th birthday in the winter. During the course of that year away from her parents and her family, she'd never been in more control of her magic. Ethan Davenport had a lot to do with that. _

_One day, the two of them were sitting in the courtyard of Greenwich Boarding, the very same place he had witnessed her magic for the first time with an astounded look on his face realizing that mystical powers were real. They were lying down on a picnic blanket, looking up at the clouds. It was one of the rare days in London where it was abnormally beautiful outside, not a dark cloud in the sky. Nothing but blue and white puffs surrounded their vision and the sun beat down on their skin, giving them the warmth they'd craved. _

_And, suddenly, it hit her like a train. An abrupt question she never thought she would have to answer. _

_"Cassie, will you marry me?" _

_Cassandra froze. It was as if a mystical creature had come up to her and zapped her with magical freezing powers. She realized that, perhaps, Ethan didn't even know what had come out of his mouth, because he was silent for a long time. Eventually, Cassandra lifted herself up onto her elbow and looked down at him from his chest._

_"Um...what?" _

_"Not now!" he defended himself, lifting his body from the picnic blanket. Cassandra, in response, sat up as well. He scoffed. "Obviously not now. I don't mean now, I don't. I mean later. Like, after we get into UCL. After we graduate." Cassie just sat there, still frozen, but he just smiled. "I just want to marry you, Cassie. I know how weird that sounds, but...but I do. I can't see myself with anyone but you. Not anymore. You've opened my eyes to things I never dreamed were possible. I don't think I can come back from that. I love you." _

_Cassandra gulped thickly. And in that moment, she thought she was going to cry. Not tears of joy, but rather tears of absolute despair. She knew the inevitable truth: her parents would force her back to Portland after Jo and Kai merged on their 21st birthday, which was right around the corner. She looked into Ethan's hopeful eyes and could see nothing but sorrow, and it killed her. But in that moment, and that moment only, she realized that it would do no good to tell him the inevitable truth. It would do no good to reject him when she loved him so much, it hurt sometimes. She wanted to marry him, to settle down and have kids. She wanted that more than anything. But it wasn't possible, not for her. _

_So she saved themselves the despair. _

_"Yes." Cassie nodded, and a grin overcame his face. And in one second, she had made the decision to spend the rest of her life with him. But in another, she'd condemned herself to misery knowing that she accepted the fruit of the poisonous tree. _

xxx

_"I had a good time with you today." _

_"It was great to see you again!" _

_"We should do this again sometime." _

There were so many ways to end their adventure. Ethan walked Cassandra back to the Salvatore's doorstep later at night, after they had stayed at the border for a while. She had taken her magic, and she felt good with it. It was surprising to her how much she missed the part of her that she had hated so much when she was younger (in a sense). In one day, he had managed to help her question her entire life and in addition, had helped her regain a part of her that she had lost. The part that defined her. How would she ever thank him for that?

"I should be getting back to Ross," Ethan exhaled as he and Cassandra came to a slow in front of the Salvatore house. They turned to look at each other, both with longing stares. A small smile formed at his lips. "I would say that we should do this again, but..."

She chuckled under her breath. "I doubt we're gonna get around to it."

It was a nicer way of putting this "inevitable truth" Cassandra thought of in her mind. Ethan nodded in agreement, realizing what she meant. They both stood on the doorstep, silent for a while, before Ethan finally let out a sigh and decided in a split second to change everything.

"I have to tell you something, Cassie, but I don't know how you'll take it." She waited as he prepared to say the words on his mind. At last, he nodded to her. "I'm not...married anymore. Or, at least, I won't be after the New Year. Ronnie and I agreed to a divorce six months ago."

Cass stood, partly shocked, partly confused. What did that mean, exactly?

"Why did it end?" she asked. _What a dumb question, Cassandra. _

"The usual. Ronnie's the assistant to a very powerful, very seductive COO of the company she works for. It was bound to happen sometime." He was quiet for a moment. "I expected it eventually, you know. Things were never...never the way it used to be. It was never the way we were."

And that's when she realized: the entire day, all she talked about was Damon. All she'd talked about was how she was moving on, and it was because she thought he had already. But after she'd talked about it, she realized the truth. And now, her head was spinning.

"Oh, Ethan, I'm so...I'm _so _sorry, I—"

"Don't be. It's alright, Cassie. It's been twenty years." She flinched. Twenty years seemed like such a long time, so how could she be standing there feeling as if she'd betrayed him for a second time? He bowed his head and shook it solemnly. "I'm okay. I came here to fix things with you, and I did. And I'm glad."

"Ethan..."

But she didn't really know what to say. And that was okay for him. He stepped forward with a cautious nod and kissed her forehead. Her heart began to hurt immensely as she thought about the conflicting emotions and decisions that coursed through her. She was so confounded that she didn't realize when he didn't pull away, that he just stood there with his forehead tilted against hers and his eyes closed, as if thinking about what to do. And then, before she could even recognize what was happening, he kissed her. It felt _so _good—it felt right in every which way. It wasn't dark, it was pure. It was good. It was what she remembered. It was everything she'd dreamed of and more. The kiss comforted her, and in a way gave her the closure that she needed. She cherished what it was like to have this kiss, the one that she'd waited for.

And as quickly as it had happened, it was ripped away. The door beside them swung open and Cassandra jumped back, breaking the kiss. When she and Ethan looked to their side, Cassandra's eyes widened.

"Damon?!" she nearly screeched. He also stood wide-eyed, but not at Cassandra. Damon was confused, throwing a look of puzzlement at the male on his porch that he had never seen before, who had been lip-locked with the witch on his front step for God knows how long. Cassandra shook her head and barely gave him time to think. "How the hell are you in Mystic Falls right now? The anti-magic border—"

Damon was slow to respond, but when he did, it was fast as he stared at Ethan and no one else. "Your brother. Long story. Who's this?"

Ethan felt extremely uncomfortable under the gaze of the dark-haired, blue-eyed man standing at the front door. His eyes narrowed slightly. "This...must be Damon."

"Wow, I feel so bad. You know my name and I don't know yours, I'm sorry what was it again?" Damon asked snidely. Cass hissed at him.

"Damon, lay off."

He looked over at her. "Cass—"

"I've got to get going." Ethan looked back down at Cassandra, who threw a look towards him with immense sorrow in her eyes. But disregarding Damon, he reached forward and touched her cheek lightly. She could see the hurt in his eyes, too, but what could she do? Her chest rose and fell with pain, and she couldn't do anything about that, either. He nodded carefully, as if to tell her it was okay that he had to leave. "I'll see you soon, Cassie."

It was a lie. They both knew it. Within seconds, he was gone, and she stared after him without realizing that Damon was still tapping his foot at the door, waiting for an explanation.

"Cassandra, who the hell was that?"

"An old friend." She looked back at Damon and shook her head. "What do you mean my brother had something to do with the anti-magic border? What's the long story?"

She stepped into the Salvatore house, but Damon left the door open as he turned to look at her. They stopped in the foyer to talk. "Your psycho brother siphoned all the magic from the spell the Travelers put around Mystic Falls, so with the spell gone, we're allowed back in."

Cassandra's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding? He has the magic from the Traveler spell? Damon! This is not good!"

He crossed his arms and stepped forward. "Yeah, I know, Cass. That's probably why I called you _twelve times _in the past hour while you were off gallivanting, doing God knows what with that cradle robber."

"What the hell are you talking about? If Ethan's a cradle robber, you might want to rethink your relationships with women, then."

"Ethan? That's his name?" Damon scoffed. "He's, what, like forty or something?"

"So? You're over a hundred years old!"

"I don't look it, do I?"

"No—"

"Then that doesn't make _me _a cradle robber."

She shook her head at him, completely dumbfounded. "What is your _problem_? You see me kissing someone other than _you_ and all of a sudden you act like you're in charge of who I'm with! Hate to break it to you, Damon, but remember that last time? It was _the last time. _You don't get control over me anymore."

"Keep your goddamn voice down! My brother's upstairs!" Damon hissed, tapping his ears. Cassandra was infuriated by the statement, and he realized his mistake immediately. After a moment of recovering from his anger, he sighed heavily and dropped his head in his hands. "That's...not what I meant, Cass."

She scoffed. "No. I know exactly what you meant."

"Cassandra—"

He tried to catch her, but when he touched her to pull her back as she stormed out of the house, his hand was burned on her skin. She threw a fiery look at him and his stomach dropped ten feet as he heard the door slam angrily behind him. When Cassandra was outside, she stood on the front step for a moment and groaned under her breath, absolutely furious. Yet, there was a part of her that felt sad. A part of her that realized Damon's feelings for her went beyond nothing other than those few months of useless sex in which they'd used each other for moral and physical support. It would never get past that level and she would have to accept that, no matter how she felt.

"Poor Cassie." She froze as she watched her brother come out from behind the side of the house, a smirk on his face. Cassandra stiffened, as if her night couldn't get any worse. Kai's lips twinged into a falsely sympathetic frown. "You just have the worst taste in men, don't you?"

And right as she could find the sense in her, through the hectic motions of the day, to conjure up her magic, Kai waved his hands and suddenly iron-clad handcuffs locked around her wrists. Cassandra looked down at them in confusion, but she didn't get a chance to react. The next thing she remembered was being knocked over the head with a crossbow.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thank you! :)

**monkeey76: **A lot of shit, that's what's happening :P Yes, Cass and Damon will find their way to each other soon, but we have a little bit to hash out before that. I can say that there will be an AU chapter between episodes 6x12 and 6x13 to get them to resolve things by then. It'll be an interesting ride. Thanks for the review!

**DreamonAlina: **Thank you! Drama trauma over here. Here's the update!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait on this chapter! Here's the update!

**sbritt264: **Thank you!

**LMarie99: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**TheGryffinclawDemigod: **Thank you! Yeah, I felt like I needed to address that in this story if anything because Elena always chooses him second and it's the most annoying thing so Cass's reasons for wanting Damon and justifying it is because of the fact that Elena is so selfish that she would never pick him first. Haha, she's one of my favorite characters because she's so different so I find it harder to write but a lot more fun. Thanks for the review!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Sorry! Another cliffhanger on this one too...

**Guest: **I don't know if she's gonna actually let Damon see her cry like that but the subject of Kai is a tricky one. He's already seen his affect on her so they already have that understanding, and he would do anything to protect her from him. There won't be that much on what they'll do after he saves her from Kai, but there will be a little scene that will lead into the next few chapters. I have to deal with Elena first and then Damon and Cassie can get into the swing of things. Thanks for the review! Here's the update.

**Guest: **She became a bitch at the beginning of Season 4 when she completely disregarded Stefan's feelings and slept with Damon and basically ruined his life and made him her little bitch.

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**sophiewhettingsteel: **Sorry! Here's the chapter!

**Guest: **I mean, she kind of already does. I think it'll be more prevalent in Season 7, though. It depends on my storyline once I decide.

**klandgraf2007: **Thank you! Yeah, there was a lot of history between Ethan/Cass and Damon got in there too at the end. Thanks for the review!

**nora: **Here's the update!

**piper: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **Thank you for that :) I haven't had much free time with SATs and APs so that is really appreciated.

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**Gigi: **Yeah this chapter with Damon and Cass was interesting when he found out about Ethan. It's gonna be interesting from here. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **Cass and Damon will get together at some point. And, yes, as of right now, Caroline and Stefan will be together. But I am shuffling around the Season 7 storyline so we'll see how it goes once I figure that out. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **I appreciate your commitment to this story. It's just hard to get an update out so fast with SATs back to back and my 4 APs this semester. I promise I get around to writing the chapters whenever I have free time. Thanks for reviewing and here's the update!

**Guest: **They will admit that they're in love with each other, yes! It's a fanfiction, so of course :) But it won't be for another few chapters, but it's getting close. He'll try, but the way that things are going now, it'll be hard for him to get through to her even if he does try to comfort her. Something else will happen though, which will sort of make up for it. Thanks for the review!

**river: **Here's the update!

**Guest: **Thanks for the idea! I'll keep that in mind when I'm making the Season 7 plans.

**Guest: **Here's the update!

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**river: **Here's the update!

**wades wife: **Here's the update!

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**Guest: **SATs and APs, that's what's with the long delay. Lots of work, lots of stress. Here's the update.


	14. What If I'm Not Sorry?

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**What If I'm Not Sorry? **

xxx

When Cass came to, she could hear the faint ramblings of her psycho brother—what else was new? He was droning on about how their father used to teach them how to cook as kids and how much he resented the fact that they never got to go out to dinner and a whole list of grievances she couldn't really care less about. All she could focus on was the loud, jack-hammer like pounding in her head that irritated her more than Kai's annoying voice, which was saying something.

Her consciousness rose to a state of stability, and when her eyes finally focused on Kai, he shot her a smile before shoveling a forkful of food into his mouth. She lifted her hand groggily, only to find that there five-pound iron-clad handcuffs that resembled something a 16th century prisoner would wear. She looked down at them, confused, and through her scratchy throat finally managed to speak.

"Why the...fuck does my head hurt so badly?" she asked, straightening in her seat. Although her hands were not bound to the chair, she realized quickly that her feet were, and the ropes were so tight they were bound to leave bruises if she moved an inch. It was making her extremely uncomfortable, but Kai didn't give her a chance to complain.

"Language! Don't be such a potty mouth." Kai _tsk_ed at her. She ignored it as he shoveled another piece of food and finally answered her. "Anyways, your head hurts because I stopped the flow to your magic. All that power pooled straight to your head, I guess. You always did have violent powers."

"What am I doing here?" she demanded, opening her eyes widely to stare right at Kai. Cass quickly recognized her surroundings. "Why did you bring me to the Mystic Grill?"

Kai cocked his head. "Didn't you hear? I got magic, Cassie. Lots of it. Yeah, that traveler spell around the town? I, like, absorbed it. Like...ate it, I guess." He smiled. "I mean, normally the magic I get, I lose it pretty fast but...I mean, a huge spell like that? I mean, come on. Magic's oozing out of me. It's all over the place."

Cass opened her mouth to say something, but Kai just continued talking. It was hurting her head even more.

"You know, I didn't quite realize I was so out of control until I met the manager of the Grill a few hours ago. And he was all like, 'Man, you can't come in here, we're closed and...and you have an unconscious girl over your shoulder!' And I was like, 'It's my sister, man, don't judge me.' So then I gave him a heart attack—or tried to. All I did was make him vomit uncontrollably, which was like...ugh, alright let's stop that. So I tried again. And I think I broke his spine? I-I'm not really sure. Because the third time I tried the spell, he kind of exploded in blood."

She stared at him, a newfound sense of disgust boiling deep into her stomach. She bit back bile in her mouth and glanced at her brother with dismay.

"Just tell me what you want, Malachai." Cass's voice was soft, uncomfortably so.

He frowned. "You mean you didn't get it from all of that? Jesus. Do I always have to spell things out for you? Look, I have too much magic, okay? You know, it wasn't until my test run with the manager that I realized...if I start to merge with Jo, and my...gushing fountain of magic turns her into that guy, then I'm not gonna have a twin for the merge—"

"Well, what the hell do you want me to do about that?!" Cass nearly shouted at him breaking her attempt at calamity. She struggled against the bonding of her feet to the legs of her chair and tried desperately to separate her hands from the iron handcuffs. It was so frustrating that she was to the point of tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "I can barely control my own goddamn magic, let alone yours! Let me go!"

"No, no, no, but that's the point, Cassie!" he exclaimed. She quit struggling and looked up at him angrily. "Your magic is uncontrollable by nature. I want to see if I can get a grip on mine by...let's call it 'dueling' with yours."

Cass lifted her hands matter-of-factly. "Well, I can't very well do that if I'm cut off, can I?"

"You won't be. When I'm ready, the cuffs will come off." Kai leaned back in his chair and smiled. "It's a good thing your boyfriend came to town, otherwise I would've had to do this the hard way."

"You're sick," she stated, turning her head away from him as a sign of protest. Kai shrugged and ignored her insult.

"Oh, hey, p.s., silver lining!" She didn't bother to look at him, but he continued anyways. "After the manager stopped thrashing around, I finally managed a cloaking spell. Thank you." He lifted his juice from the table and took a sip from it. Cass turned her head slowly to him, confused. He smiled beneath his glass. "It's easy to do and...undo..."

Cass locked eyes with her brother involuntarily, and keeping his eyes pinned on hers, he said two words that unveiled the sight before her, a sight that made her slide her chair back as far as it would go as she realized: there was a dead man on the table in front of her the entire time. The dead man's skin was seared, his eyes open with a look of horror on her face. Cass had never seen a sight more revolting. Kai only smiled.

"Table for three," he joked with a psychotic laugh. It was as if he enjoyed the sight of her about to upchuck all over the floor. "You had no idea."

xxx

Damon woke himself up with his snoring, and it didn't help the fact that Liz Forbes was staring at him while he was sleeping. Upon his eventual rising from his slumber, the sick Sheriff frowned upon him sitting in her hospital room on a chair, sleeping by her bedside.

"I paid extra for this room to be a single," she informed him. Damon stretched his limbs and frowned at her as well.

"You clearly underestimate the number of women who'd _die _to spend the night with me."

Liz shrugged. "Well, I'm not dead yet." She laughed as she watched Damon stretch the recliner out in the chair so that he could get a more comfortable nap in. "Any word from Elena?"

"I spoke to her last night on the phone. She wanted to come over, but I wasn't up to it." Damon scowled at himself as he thought of last night, where Cass had rudely kissed another man on his front step and then yelled at him for being too involved, and then stormed out. Granted, the storming out was partially his fault. He didn't mean what he said, and to be fair, he didn't exactly know why he said it. Well, that was a lie. He knew why he said it. Anything Stefan knew, Elena would, and he wasn't sure he was ready for Elena to find out about his extracurricular activities in 1994.

"Why?"

"Long story." Damon sighed. "But...to make it short, I haven't heard from Cass since she left the boarding house last night. She's upset with me."

"Cass...the girl who came back with you from the prison world?"

"Yeah. I said some things."

The Sheriff nodded, not needing a further explanation. "Have you at least managed to patch things up with Ric?"

"Well...baby steps. Step one, allow him to turn my house into Hogwarts. Step two, call in a favor from the Sheriff." Damon winked at the hospital patient before him. "Ask her to put out an APB on a super-charged serial killer named Kai Parker."

Sheriff Forbes reached over her bed and grabbed her phone from the table beside it. "Yeah, I already had my guys on the lookout. No one matching Kai's description popped up overnight."

Damon looked off into the distance and shook his head out of confusion. "What the hell is he doing?"

Even if Sheriff Forbes had an answer to the question he posed, she wouldn't have gotten a chance to answer it, as her daughter barged into the room, unannounced, with no consideration whatsoever as to the conversation between her mother and the vampire lounging around on the guest recliner. Caroline, the pretty blonde vampire who never slowed down for a single moment, hurried straight up to her mother's bedside.

"Bad news is, the employee kitchen didn't have a juicer. Good news is, they do now!" Caroline extended a cup to her mother full of green goo. Sheriff Forbes looked at the cup with disdain.

"...What is this?"

"It's a kale smoothie. It's good for DNA cell repair and for...slowing cancer." She moved on as quickly as she said the words. Her fingers reached out to touch her mother's arm, and when she felt the slightest bit of a cool temperature, her anxiety shot through the roof. "Oh, are you warm enough?"

"I'm fine."

"Let me just get you another blanket." Liz sighed, defeated, when Caroline didn't hear her and went straight to the dresser for an extra cover. Damon leaned back in his chair.

"So you can _literally _smother her?" he suggested with the tiniest bit of sarcasm. It didn't fare well with the blonde vampire in front of him.

"I'm just trying to help here. Since, apparently, modern medicine takes forever." She covered her mother with a blanket and tucked it tightly under the patient's body. "I don't understand why we can't skip all the guess work and go straight to something that works. Like vampire blood."

"We're not having this conversation again, sweetheart." Liz frowned. Caroline straightened frustratedly.

"Okay, then what do you want to talk about? How the doctors can't operate? How chemo won't work? How radiation won't shrink the tumor?" She spun around sharply to the lazy vampire a few feet away from her mother's bedside. "Damon, feel free to jump in with your support here at any time!"

Damon, who was disinterestedly twirling around a rose in his hand that he had plucked from one of Liz's 'Get Well Soon' bouquets by the table next to him, didn't even bother looking up at her as he confessed, "Well, I think that would require you having my support, Caroline."

This seemed to stop Caroline in her tracks. She watched as Damon shifted nonchalantly and knotted her eyebrows at him, genuinely confounded.

"Wait, you don't think that our blood will work?"

"In 170-odd years, I've never known an instance where our blood cured cancer. But, hey, sure. If you want to be a guinea pig in a study involving weird, unpredictable magic..." Damon frowned sourly, "...far be it from me to...stop you."

"Look, sweetheart," Liz began, earning Caroline's defeated attention back. "For now, I would like to put my faith in science. Which means going home on doctor's orders, having a nice...quiet day, and waiting for more MRI results."

"See?" Damon lifted himself from the recliner and watched as a pissed-off Caroline turned around at him to see what he had to say. Damon just shot her a courteous smile. "Mommy knows best. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make sure these witches aren't destroying my house." He turned around as he reached the door and gave the patient, his friend, a kind smile. "Feel better."

xxx

_THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. _

It was as if her entire head was in hyperdrive. When her eyes opened and her head rolled over to her other shoulder, Cass could feel the power in her head move as if it were liquid in a bottle. It was so loud that everything, from the sound of her own breath to the sound of her psychotic brother speaking to her, was muffled like her ears had been damaged in an explosion.

She was no longer in the Grill, though. That, she gathered. She could hear Kai rambling through a muffled lens, but when she saw him, she realized they were in a different setting. He was bent over, staring at a bunch of trophies on the wall. As soon as Cass had the energy to lift her eyes wide enough and turn her head around to see where she was, she groaned.

"You have a thing for high schools," she murmured lowly. Kai turned to look at her, realizing that she was awake. She could barely hear the sound of her own voice. "Maybe it's because you were so unpopular when you were in it."

Kai said something, but she couldn't hear. He could see the confused look on her face, but before she could tell him to speak up, he snapped his fingers, said something again, and then waved his hand. Suddenly, the thumping dissipated, and the liquid in her head dispersed as if her magic was spreading throughout her body in her bloodstream. Over the following moments, her hearing returned, and she looked up at Kai strangely.

"What did you just do?"

He didn't say anything, but merely held up the iron cuffs that had retained her magic in his hand. Her eyes widened, but when she made a move to fight realizing that her magic was back, she realized quickly that her arms were still cuffed, but this time to the ceiling of the high school with non-magic binding cuffs. Kai laughed.

"Did you think I'd make it that easy?" he prompted. Cass tried to pull at the chains, but they weren't budging. She looked back at her brother with a sigh.

"How do you suppose this is going to work, Kai? I'm not a vampire. I can die, you know."

"Sure you can. But your magic is special, Cassie." He waited for her to say something, but when all he got from her was a confused look, he straightened. "Oh. Right, I suppose you wouldn't know, with everyone teaching you to conceal it and everything..."

"Just shut up." Kai noticed her look of annoyance and watched as she frowned at him. "Look, even if my magic is 'special' and strong enough to withstand whatever the hell you do to it, I still have to use it." She tugged at the chains and gave him a dirty look. "Can't very well do that locked up, can I?"

"Oh, no, but you have." Cass hesitated as he smiled at her widely, and then launched into his long-winded explanation per usual. "Right. I guess you wouldn't know that either. Look, when you get attacked, Cassie, your magic attacks back. It's the damnedest thing! That's actually how we got here. I tried the whole acid-blood thing, but your magic kept trying to turn _my _blood into acid and it was just...it was just very entertaining. I was starting to get uncomfortable though, so I cut off your magic again. You passed out."

Cassandra watched as Kai slipped off his jacket and threw it on the floor, readying himself. She fidgeted, trying to dodge what she knew was coming at her. Her heartbeat sped up a million times thinking about Kai trying to, quite literally, make her blood boil. When he looked serious enough to start, she shook her head.

"Don't do this, Malachai. You can stop this."

He started the incantation, and she could feel his magic radiating from his position a few feet in front of her. Still, she persevered.

"What do you think this is going to accomplish? Killing me? Is that it, Kai, is that what you want? Do you want to kill me?"

Suddenly, Kai stopped his incantation to respond to her question. She was breathing heavily, the only sound that could be heard within the whole school. A few seconds of painful, slow breathing passed before she saw Kai look at her with eyes filled with pity.

"Of course not, Cassie."

"Then stop this."

"I can't."

"You _can._"

He looked as if he were debating it—really debating it, she could tell—but after those few moments where he imagined what his life would be like if he was suddenly the good guy, he realized that it was a much better life as the bad one. Without delay, he started his incantation again, this time hitting Cass ten times more than he had when he first started. She screamed so loud she was sure her ears were bleeding from the shrill. Cass continued to try to get him to stop, but it just kept going on. She could feel the bubbles in her skin, the acid beginning to form from the blood in her veins.

And while on that brink of pain where she could not bring herself to perform magic for the sake of her own well-being, she realized that there was one thing and one thing only that was true that came out of Kai's mouth. Her magic was special.

She knew this, of course. But what she didn't know was how special. What she didn't know was that it had a mind of its own. The magic in her veins that Kai attempted to fumigate snapped back with a surge of power, and she heard him scream so loudly that he was caught off guard, and the strength on his magic weakened significantly. The gap was so strong that Cassandra was able to realize that she _could _use her magic, and although Kai recoiled as quickly as he had slipped, it was too late. She gripped her hands tightly on the chains above her and released a burst of magic, heating the chains so that the links burned off. She managed to get one last surge of power out to blast Kai back, and the second that his magic stopped being directed towards her, she split.

Cass ran so fast that she could only be thankful she had forced herself to run for long periods of time back in the Prison World. She skirted the hallways as quickly as she could, but she could sense that Kai was not far behind. In fact, right as she came to the auditorium doors and opened them, they were instantly pulled closed by the figure behind her, looming over her as her greatest hinderance.

"Nice try, Cassandra." Kai's disapproval was evident, not only by his murderous tone but also by the use of 'Cassandra' in his taunt. He didn't call her that unless he was pissed off. She paused to catch her breath as she could feel him stalk closer to her, but she had to get inside. She knew there would be a phone up in the sound booth, she just had to get to it. Every second she wasted was another step closer. Finally, Cass took a deep breath and let her magic sink into her hands.

She turned around sharply and hissed, "Phasmatos incendia!"

Cass threw iron-hot flames at Kai, who stumbled back as his entire body lit aflame. Quickly, she turned back around and entered the auditorium, closing it quickly and sealing it as fast as she could with a protection spell that she knew Kai would find some way around. She didn't have time to go and seal all the doors. With rarely any tripping, she managed to climb her way up to the sound booth where, sure enough, there was a landline in the corner waiting to be used. But she only knew one number.

_"Magic camp," _his voice chipped over the line, "_how may I help you?" _

It was the last voice she wanted to hear. The last person she wanted to talk to. The only person who could—or even _would_—help her.

"Damon!" She didn't waste a breath. "Kai has me at Mystic Falls High. I-I didn't know who else to call, I...I need you. I need your help. _Please_—"

His chipper, but still bitter, tone suddenly turned serious. _"Whoa, slow down. Cassandra? Where the hell have you been?"_

She was about to say something, but before she could, she heard a loud _bang, _the closing of a heavy metal door. She looked up onto the stage and saw Kai looking around anxiously for her, but as her breath slowed, his eyes landed upon her figure up in the phone booth. As he set out to get to her, she could hear Damon's confused voice on the line.

_"Cass...tell me what happened!" _

"It doesn't matter! Hurry!" she snapped before hanging up the phone as quickly as she could, running over to the door to get her out of the sound booth. But right as she braced to flee the room, when she opened the door, Kai was standing right in front of her to witness her scream. She'd had enough time to allow her magic to defend herself, but Kai was too strong. He managed to ward off the burst of magic that her powers attacked with, and it spread a smile across his face from ear to ear.

The next thing she knew, the bracelet was snapped back on her wrist with a flick of his hand. Two second later, when she felt the power pool to her head so fast that she got dizzy, Cassandra could see nothing but dark spots, and she was sure she'd hit the floor by then. Kai grinned down at her.

"Bingo!"

xxx

"Cass? Cassandra? Cassandra!" Damon yelled into the phone, although he knew very well that she had gone. He also knew that he must've looked like a madman to the people around him, but he didn't care. Perhaps they were worried as well, and he was sure that there were a few in the room demanding to know what happened with Cassandra. Yet, it was Elena who caught his attention.

"Damon!" Elena snapped him out of his frenzy by raising her voice at him. He looked up at her with wide eyes. "Tell us what happened. Where's Cassandra?"

He looked around the Salvatore foyer, which was populated with two Gemini witches and Alaric in addition to the brunette vampire who asked him to use his words. He could see the concern on Jo and Liv's faces, both of them desperate to know what was wrong with their sister. However, Damon was mostly focused on his own feelings of wretched hate towards Kai Parker.

With a snarl, he growled, "I need a witch. Preferably one that doesn't suck."

Damon wasted no more time. He slipped his phone into his pocket and turned around sharply to go out to the car. As he did, Elena reached forward and grabbed his arm to pull him back. He looked back at her, but she cold tell he wasn't too keen on staying back another second.

"Damon, seriously. What the hell is going on?"

"You wanna know what's going on? The son of a bitch took her. They're at the high school." Damon's eyes glazed over the people around him in the room. His eyes finally settled on Liv, who was confused, but willing to go along with what he was saying. "Let's go, Blondie. Now!"

Liv didn't hesitate. She lifted herself up from the chair in the foyer and followed Damon out quickly, but before they could leave, Elena decided to go with them. Damon continued to walk as fast as he could, not bothering to slow his pace down so the parties trailing him could keep up. Similarly, although Elena yelled at him from the passenger seat to slow the car down, Damon didn't even consider her request as he sped over from the Salvatore boarding house into town and to the high school. When he stopped the car, Elena rolled her eyes as she got out, as did Damon and Liv. The witch with them sighed nervously.

"Kai may have spent twenty years with Cassandra in a prison world, but I doubt that means he's developed the ability to care about her. He'll kill her if he has to."

Damon threw an unamused look at her. "I won't let that happen. Just do the stupid cloaking spell so I can grab Cass and you can get back to wrecking my mansion."

"I'll help you," Elena suggested, and Damon shrugged with no objections. As he walked up to the backdoor of the school so that they could get the element of surprise on Kai, he found that Liv was not following him. Instead, she had set up herself on the hood of Damon's car. He turned around and scowled at her.

"What are you doing? The backdoor is right here."

Liv turned around to look at him. "Look, I want to save my sister, but I can't go in there! If Kai even gets a glimpse of me, I'm dead! I'm strong enough to do the spell from here."

Damon shook his head. "Whatever. I hope you cloak better than you teach. By the looks of my living room, Jo's not learning very much!"

"Damon, she's doing the best she can," Elena assured him.

"Relax," Liv added. "With a bit of practice, she'll be merge-ready in no time."

However, as Damon watched Liv turn around slowly, he noticed that the expression on her face was less than confident. He wanted to ask, but he couldn't—at that moment, it wasn't all that important. He turned back to the school as he heard Liv chanting her incantation behind him, and as Damon impatiently waited, he felt a soft hand come around his arm. When Damon looked beside him, he saw Elena looking into his eyes with that soft look she'd always had when she was trying to comfort someone.

"It'll be okay," Elena promised. "We'll save her. She'll be okay."

But for some reason, her assurance wasn't very helpful. It especially wasn't helpful coming from her. Was she always this unhelpful, Damon wondered? But it was more than that, because even though Elena was trying to make him feel better about Cass and was failing miserably, mostly because his anxiety only shot through the roof when she tried to get him to calm down, he was also uncomfortable with it coming from her. Given Cassandra's recent slip-up back when they visited 1994, Damon didn't feel okay with hearing Elena comfort him when it came to Cassandra. He felt...wrong. He felt like he was cheating her, being concerned about Cassandra while he continued to convince himself he was in love with Elena.

Before he'd had any more time to freak out about his situation, Damon heard the incantation Liv was chanting suddenly stop from behind him. Turning around, Damon's eyes widened as he saw Liv was gone and he was standing all alone at the back of the high school. Elena looked around as well, confused as hell.

"Liv!" Damon hissed as he turned around, trying to find her. "Hey, Liv!"

"Liv?" Elena asked aloud, trying to look to see if she had decided to run anywhere. But as Damon _really _got angry, he turned around to find himself face-to-face with Liv's twin brother, Luke.

"Sorry."

Damon straightened as Luke stood in front of him, not a drop of remorse on his face for pulling Liv out before they'd had a chance to be cloaked. His temperature was starting to rise with the anger boiling inside of him.

"What are you doing here?" Damon demanded.

"She doesn't have time for this."

"Cassandra is your sister!" Elena stepped forward, astounded at Luke's reckless abandonment. "How could you leave her in there with Kai? He'll kill her!"

"Cassandra can handle herself. She's been handling herself for years without vampires helping her out." Luke looked between Damon and Elena. "When you see her, tell her I'm sorry. _Invisique._"

"No! No!" Damon shouted as he watched Luke disappear in front of his eyes. He looked around desperately, but there was no one there. They were on their own.

xxx

This time, when Cass woke up, she was not chained to the ceiling like before. Instead, she found herself tied to one of the seats in the auditorium just in front of the stage, which was lit with florescent lighting to its fullest extent. Her headache was back, as was Kai's muffled voice as he spoke to her from on stage, where he was sitting down on the apron with his legs draped over the edge. He was waiting for her to wake up, a Coca-Cola in his hand. She noticed that he had changed his shirt so that there was a flashy "Mystic Falls Timberwolves" slogan on the front.

He smiled down at his sister through the brightness of the auditorium. "Oh, hello."

Cass stared up at him and narrowed her eyes. "Aren't you a little too old to be wearing a high school t-shirt?"

"Well, someone burned my other one." Kai grinned from ear to ear. "Which was awesome, by the way. Did I tell you how proud I was of that?"

"No, you were a little too busy hunting me down."

"Right. Well, I'm proud of you, little sis. You know, I can see why our parents really didn't like you using it. That was a hell of a lot of magic! Who knew such a small girl could be so powerful?" She didn't even dignify his comment with a response. Kai's smile slowly twitched down into a frown as he mumbled, "Oh, it sucks about that shirt though."

Cassandra scoffed. "Alright, you've had your fun, Malachai. Don't you think this is getting old? I mean, really, what else could you possibly accomplish here?" She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, making the rigid ropes dig into her skin. He swung his legs faster as she added, "I saw what you did back there. You can obviously control your magic now, so why don't you just let me go?"

It was a long-shot. She knew that much. Kai wouldn't just 'let her go' because he didn't have anything else to use her for. The only way she was getting out of the school was if she either incapacitated Kai long enough to escape or if he threw her in a body bag and went to bury her corpse.

So, naturally, he chuckled as he hopped off the auditorium stage. "Aw, poor...naïve Cassie. Sure, I may have mastered this magic, but...well, there's something I've been meaning to do."

Cass swallowed thickly as he stalked his way to her, his body merely a shadow with the light blocking out his murderous face. She desperately tugged at her ropes, but they were too tight. It was then that she realized they were probably knotted and sealed with a spell, and there would be no way to get out of them unless the cuff around her wrist was removed. She tried to remove that, too, with the power that was sloshing around in her head, but it was no use. It was as if there was a wall that the power could not get past, and that wall separated her magic from being useful and being dormant. She struggled more and more until, finally, Kai came up to her seat in the house and clapped his hands down on her tied ones, which were just over the arm rests. His face was so close to hers, she could see the crisp blue in his eyes.

"Kai, what are you doing?" she whispered, flinching away from him. Cass thought she was strong enough to withstand his psychotic nature after having to deal with it for so long, but being back in the real world had made her just as vulnerable as she was before, and she hated it. She could die her. Kai could kill her and there would be no coming back from it.

"What I've wanted to do for a while now."

He gripped her hands so hard that she was sure they'd turned purple. Then, she could see it in his face. He was trying to siphon her magic. She could feel the pull of his powers, the heat from his hands that desperately attempted to suck the magic right out of her. But, still, her power remained pooled in her head, sloshing around. When Kai realized this, he got extremely frustrated and gripped the iron cuffs on her hands, trying to suck the magic out of them. They, too would not budge. It began to dawn on him after a few more attempts that it was not the location of his siphoning that mattered, it was her magic.

He couldn't siphon her magic.

"No. No, no, no, no." Kai muttered under his breath as he pulled away from Cassandra and stepped back, turning around with his hands in his hair as he processed his failure. Cass let out the breath she'd unintentionally been holding for the past twenty seconds, and she could not have been more relieved. After being apart from her magic for so long, she didn't think she could do it again. Having the power was like being addicted to a drug, and if it was removed again, she'd go through her detox one more time, and she didn't know if she was strong enough to withstand it.

He spun around angrily. "What the hell, Cassie?"

She shifted in her chair proudly. "You said it before, Malachai. We're different from the rest of them. You may be able to take power, but I guess...I guess you can't take mine."

Kai looked at her, about ready to throw a tantrum, and all Cass did was smile.

xxx

Damon paced anxiously around the parking lot while Elena watched him, the phone to her ear as Alaric picked up the phone to listen to their dilemma.

"Liv's gone," she explained. "We need a Plan B."

She could hear the panic in Alaric's voice. _"Wait, what do you mean she's gone?" _

"I...I don't know, Luke took her for some reason. But, look, Damon and I can't go in there without a cloaking spell. If Kai sees us, he'll kill Cassandra without blinking just to make a point. We need another witch."

From the end of the line, she could hear Jo shout, _"I can do it!" _

Alaric replied, _"You can barely light a candle." _

_"Cloaking is one of the first things they teach you as a Gemini. I learned it when I was a kid!" _

_"But...?" _

_"I'll have to stay beside Damon and Elena while I do it, which means I'll have to go inside." _

_"There's gotta be some other option." _

Then, Elena recognized her brother's raspy, disinterested voice on the phone as he joined the conversation. "_There is. Right here." _

Damon yanked the phone out of Elena's hand and held it up to his ear with a roll of his eyes. "Let me guess! Jeremy's holding a crossbow."

_"No one is killing Kai!" _Jo exclaimed to everyone angrily. He could hear Jeremy's distaste over the phone.

_"Well, he needs to be stopped one way or another. Or would you rather you let your sister die?" _

_"Nobody's letting anyone die!" _

"Anyone have any other ideas?" Damon prompted. Elena frowned at him from across the parking lot, but Damon chose to ignore it. A few seconds later, Damon could hear Jo whisper to Alaric, "_She's my sister, Ric." _

Damon waited patiently, but he was growing more impatient by the moment. Who knew what Kai was doing to Cassandra in that school? One thing's for sure, Damon was two seconds away from busting down the door and trying like hell to rescue Cassandra before Kai even had a chance to blink if no one agreed to help him.

xxx

"Are you just gonna sit there are stare at me for the rest of eternity?" Cass prompted Kai as he sat up on the apron again, staring her down as if he was trying to accomplish something. He remained silent, his lips posed in a tight, thin line that expressed his distaste clearly and accurately. She sighed. "Staring at me uncomfortably is not going to make the situation any different. You can't take my magic, get over it."

"Why is that?" He proposed. "Why can't I take your magic?"

She threw what leeway she had with her hands up in the air with a frustrated shrug. "Beats me. Does it matter? You have all the magic from the traveler spell, do you really need more?"

Kai thought about it for a moment. "No, I guess not. But—"

"But what? But nothing, that's what." She rolled her eyes. "You've always been greedy. Greedy and selfish, that's what you've always been."

"You know what?" Kai hopped down from the apron and pointed a disappointing, elder brother finger at her. "I'm gonna leave to go get a drink of water before you say something you'll regret. I would hate to have to kill you before you can see me take over the Gemini Coven. Lose the attitude. I'll be back in ten."

He moved to walk out of the auditorium, and as he made his way down the aisles, Cass smiled to herself bitterly and shouted out, "Take your fucking time!"

"Language!" Kai snapped back at her as he left the auditorium. When he was gone, she let out a frustrating groan that echoed through the auditorium's acoustics. While Kai roamed the hallways outside, she continued to try and get out of the magic-sealed ropes, but it was no use. Not only did Kai tie them as tight as he possibly could, she couldn't do anything about the magic. When she'd finally given up on them, about two minutes later, she found them being miraculously lifted off her hands by an invisible force. She looked around, confused, but finally, she saw Damon kneeling in front of her taking off the last of the ropes on her hands.

"Hey," Damon said softly, a smile spreading on his face as he grabbed her hands. Her confused look turned into one of absolute relief.

"Damon!" she shouted in a whispered tone. He nodded. "How did you...where did you come from?"

"Jo's invisibility spell. If you can see me, that means you joined the party." She looked up to find Jo and Elena standing a few feet away from them. Jo had a concerning look on her face, one of complete exhaustion. Cass's eyes widened.

"Josette? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine. Breaking the spell off your ropes was a little more than trying." She cleared her throat. "Can you take over the invisibility spell."

She lifted her hand to show the iron cuff. "Not unless you can take this off."

Jo looked at it, debating whether or not she wanted to try, but she knew she couldn't do it. Jo shook her head, but Cass nodded at it reassuringly.

"I know. Don't worry about it, let's just get out of here." Damon lifted her up from her seat and led her out of the auditorium, Elena and Jo trailing closely behind. As Elena moved out of the auditorium, Jo paused as she felt a drop of blood drip down her nose, a sign of the deterioration of her spell. Luckily, as her back was turned to the rest of them, she wasn't caught. Elena did turn around, however, to check on her.

"Hey. You okay?" the vampire prompted. Jo nodded to her as she wiped off her blood and then turned back around to face her.

"Yeah. Let's go."

They all bolted out of the auditorium and, as they made their way to the front of the school, Jo began to slow down. Cass and Damon were farther ahead, so they didn't notice, but again, Elena was the one that realized the severity of Jo's situation. When she turned around and found Jo stumbling around with a face as pale as a ghost, she knew instantly that something was wrong. Cass and Damon stopped as well in front of them.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Elena asked again as Jo coughed. The witch nodded.

"Yeah...four people's just a lot more to cloak than three." She stumbled forward, and Elena caught her as she nearly fell flat on her face. When holding her back, Elena noticed the blood dripping from Jo's nose.

"Whoa! Jo, why's your nose bleeding?"

"I have a guess." Jo, Elena, Damon, and Cass all looked ahead to see Kai standing at the end of the hallway, clearly looking at all of them. The invisibility spell had failed, and they knew it the second he gave them his psychotic smile. Kai turned his eyes to Jo. "Magic's hard. Isn't it, Jo?"

Jo stumbled in Elena's grasp from the exhaustion, and Damon pushed Cass behind him as Kai stared at her with anger. Jo looked at Damon over Elena's shoulder.

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't sweat it." He shrugged and kept his eyes on Kai wearily. "I want him to see me when I kick his ass." Elena turned around at hm, waiting to see what Damon wanted her to do. He nodded to her. "Get her out of here. Okay?"

Elena wanted to argue, but she knew Damon was serious about it. She swung Jo's arm around her shoulder and helped her out of the hallway. As Damon continued to keep his eyes on Kai, he hissed at Cassandra behind him.

"Run, Cass. Don't stop until you get outside."

"I'm not afraid of him." Cass snapped at Kai before her eyes flickered over to Damon for a moment. "And I'm not going to leave you here. He's done enough damage for one day."

A moment passed where Damon nodded, realizing that she needed to do this—she needed to be the one to see him go down after everything they'd been through. As they looked at each other with an assurance in their eyes, Kai cooed before them.

"Aw! You two, fighting alongside each other. It's adorable." Kai's face scrunched up as he stared at Damon and Cassandra in front of them. They both stared back, refusing to give into his schemes. "It's cute, but also tragic. It'll never last." He waved his hand in front of his face and, all of a sudden, Cassandra disappeared beside Damon. When he realized this, Damon's eyes went as wide as the sun.

"Where's Cassandra?!" Damon demanded, looking back at Kai. Kai mocked his concern.

"Oh! Are we not cloaking people anymore? I-I thought that's what this was."

Damon sped forward, aiming right at Kai, but the witch disappeared faster than Damon could reach him. Damon turned around desperately to figure out where the little bastard went, and he heard a whistle. Kai was standing in front of him, waving his hand tauntingly with a bitchass smile. The angry vampire flitted beside him and broke the end of a mop stick, suddenly launching it into the air right at Kai. It landed in the dead center of his chest, and he choked up his blood with a strange look in his eyes. Damon's eyebrows knotted as he heard another voice—Kai's.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt." Damon looked the side and saw Kai standing beside whoever it was he threw the stake at. Kai turned back at Damon triumphantly. "I am definitely getting the hang of this. Cloaking spells, illusions. You know, it's all the same wheelhouse."

He waved his hand again to reveal Cassandra, who was holding the stake in her chest as she coughed up blood from the injury. Damon's heart raced as she dropped to the floor, and just as he was about to race over to her, Kai's hand turned up and the inside of Damon's head burned like it was on fire. Nevertheless, as Kai left that hallway to go find Jo, he fought the pain and crawled over to Cassandra, who was severely injured. Finally, went the witch torture went away, Damon wasted no time in ripping the stake out as fast as he could and tearing into his wrist. She didn't have much of a choice, so she didn't fight him when he forced her to drink the blood that poured from his bites.

"Shh, shh, it's okay." Damon smoothed out Cass's hair as she gripped onto his wrist and drank what she needed until she healed. When she was sure that the wound was gone, she allowed herself to sit up as she pushed Damon's wrist away from her mouth. He continued to stay on top of her, afraid that there would be something wrong. "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

"I'm fine, Damon. I'm fine," she gasped as she reached up and grabbed his hand to bring it down from her face. But for some reason, instead of releasing it, she found herself gripping it tighter, and he did the same. It was to the point where she was afraid that if she released his hand, she would have a giant bruise to wake up to in the morning. During this time, they were both staring at each other for an uncomfortably long amount of time. It was the second time in one day that she was staring into a pair of crystal clear blue eyes, but the difference was, this time there wasn't a psychotic layer underneath them. No, this time, she could see the kindness, the concern, the care that hid behind the pair of gemstones she stared into.

When it became too much for her to handle—or, perhaps more accurately, when she remembered who Damon was and what had recently transpired between them—Cass released his hand at her own risk and pushed him away.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He watched as her eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry for what I said. I shouldn't have—"

"What if I'm not sorry?"

Cass pulled her eyes up from the floor to look at Damon, who had never once taken his eyes away from her face. His breath was low and hot on her skin, and it made her head spin so hard she was seeing double. She could've been talking about anything...about what she said back at the boarding house or something completely unrelated to them at all, but she wasn't...and he knew that. Cass stared at him, her heart racing. She was sure he could hear it beating out of her chest at that point.

"What?"

He was about to respond when Elena rushed out of the hallway hurriedly, interrupting Cass and Damon as she let out a sigh of relief upon seeing Damon safe.

"Good. Good, Damon, you're okay." Elena turned and looked at Cassandra. "And you? Are you alright?"

"Peachy." Cass muttered under her breath as she lifted herself from the floor, trying—and failing—to not use Damon for support. He ended up catching her as she fell right into his arms as a result of a massive head rush. It was when her ears were ringing from the head rush that she'd remembered the painful banging inside of her head and said in a raspy murmur, "I have a bitchin' headache though."

Damon watched as she practically buckled, by no choice of her own. He sighed and wasted no effort at all in wrapping his arm around the back of her knees and lifting her up onto his chest. Elena watched as Damon looked up at her and nodded.

"Come on. Let's get her back."

xxx

Luckily for them, the bastard witch that took Cassandra had been crossbow-ed by Jeremy before having the chance to escape with Jo to do the merge. Everyone reconvened at Alaric's apartment, even Elena, who plopped down beside Damon as they all relaxed from the day's events. Elena was trying to get a stain out of her shirt, which she had gotten courtesy of Kai when he took Jo before Jeremy got to them. As Damon sipped on his bourbon and Jo and Alaric talked in his living room, Cassandra was in the room across the hall attempting to wash off the day's work. Jo had managed to take off her cuff, but it had taken a lot out of her. Damon could see that the witch, although more in practice, was still incredibly weak.

"So, um..." Elena began under her breath. Damon broke his concentration and looked at the beautiful vampire in front of him, who was struggling to find words in her throat. "Assuming no one gets kidnapped before tomorrow, maybe we can...um, try for dinner sometime?"

Damon stared at her across the table and tried his best to be nonchalant, but all he could do was think about Cassandra, who was in the room just behind her. "Ooh, you know, I don't know. I mean, every time we try to go on a date, you get kidnapped...I get sent to a prison world...or your feelings get compelled away, I just...I don't know if it's gonna work."

Elena chuckled at him. "Are you gonna keep sulking? Or are you gonna let me take you to dinner?"

Damon grinned. "Well, I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

She gave him a flirty smile just before Jo came up behind them and looked at Elena, who was continuing to try and get the stain out of her shirt. Jo smiled at her.

"I can help you clean that. One part ammonia, two parts meat tenderizer.

Her eyes widened. "You invented a stain remover?"

"I'm not afraid of a little blood."

Elena shrugged and went with Jo to the kitchen to help get the stain out of her blouse. As the two women left the room, Damon watched through the cracked door of Cassandra's room as the brunette witch came out of the attached bathroom in nothing but a cotton white towel. He couldn't help but stare, but she caught him before it could get weird. Her eyes locked with his, and Damon awkwardly let his eyes wander a bit as she walked up and closed the door on him to make sure he couldn't watch. When the door was closed and there was nothing left to see, Damon was forced to listen to Alaric, who sat down next to him with a glass of bourbon.

"You know, I think she's gonna get a handle on this." At first, Damon was confused, but then he realized Alaric was talking about Jo with Kai. Alaric leaned back in his chair. "Especially with Cassandra having her powers back now."

Damon shook his head. "I don't want Cass to have to use her magic again. Not after what happened today."

Ric scoffed. "You're oddly protective of her."

"Spend four consecutive months with someone who was trying to evade their psycho brother. After what we've been through, I have the right." Damon leaned forward in his chair and decided to move on from Cassandra, finding it too hard to think about her without questioning his every belief. "Jo's not strong enough, Ric."

"She wouldn't lie about it," Alaric defended. Damon shook his head.

"No, she wouldn't lie about it. He absorbed a spell the size of Mystic Falls, Ric. He changed the game."

"Look..." Ric gestured behind him. "We've got Kai on ice. We'll just wait for his stolen magic to drain away, and then she'll beat him."

Damon's eyes widened. "What if she can't?"

"Well, she has to." Damon looked over at Alaric as he nodded assuringly. "She will."

Damon pondered arguing with Alaric, but he realized that it would help no one at that point. They'd had enough for one day. He could figure out how to deal with Kai tomorrow.

"Well, alright then." He watched as Cassandra's door open and she walked out quietly, trying to be unseen. She refused to look at him as she made her way over to the kitchen with her hair dripping wet all the way down one of the pajama shirts they'd bought on one of their shopping sprees after her return. He watched her tuck her hair behind her ear and turn the corner to grab something to eat after her long day, skillfully avoiding his stare at every turn. Damon sighed and leaned forward, grabbing his bourbon glass and extending it to Alaric. "Here's to women who make crazy, screwed-up decisions...and loving them more for it."

Damon stared down at the glass as Alaric smiled and leaned forward to tap it. As Damon knocked back the alcohol in the glass, he couldn't help but remember the words that haunted him ever since their visit to 1994.

_I would._

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thank you! :)

**LMarie99: **Hahaha thanks! Here's the chapter! Sorry for the long wait.

**IrinaPetrova: **Thank you so much! Sorry for the long wait, there has been a lot going on in my life lol but I hope you enjoyed this update!

**HALEBTRASH: **Eventually we will, but I think it won't actually start forming until Season 7 for plot reasons, because Elena's still in the picture and whatnot. There will be more Bonnie and Cass friendship once Bonnie returns though!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Hahaha lol I agree! Thanks for the review.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Here it is! With a little help from Damon and co., she made it out. Yeah, Cass and Ethan's story is so sad, but he'll be coming back in the next season so we'll get to see a little more of them thankfully. Ethan left lol but Damon saved her! Thanks for the review and here's the chapter! Sorry for the wait.

**Guest: **He did!

**Hope10: **Lol nope. It wouldn't be The Vampire Diaries if they got a break :P

**Princess282: **Thanks! Yes there definitely will, especially now with things heating up with Damon and Cass, Cass will need someone to talk to when Bonnie comes back. Yeah, he does still have feelings for her and she (sort of) does too. But no, that's not the reason he's getting a divorce, which I tried to make clear because I thought that'd be a shitty way to leave it, but he is getting a divorce because his wife cheated on him. It sucks for their relationship since Cass has (sort of) moved on, but things will get better. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **I did! Thanks for the review.

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thank you! Lol true, but he'll make it up in the next few chapters :)

**Guest: **Here it is!

**Guest: **I think that's how it's going to go, especially since Cass is already human. But I fully intend on making her handle it extremely different from the way Elena handled it.

**Guest: **Yep, pretty much lol I think that sums up everything in two questions! :P

**Guest: **Well, basically, Kai calls her Cassie BECAUSE Ethan calls her Cassie which ends up making her angry at Kai because he was taunting her that she can never have the life she wants with Ethan because she was trapped with him.

**sophiewhettingsteel: **Thanks! Here it is!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Thank you! Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Yes he did!

**Guest: **Most times, but it depends on the weekends. Things are slowing down now with summer coming up so that's good.

**Guest: **Oh, it'll come around. I don't know if I'm gonna have her full-on punch Elena, but we'll see where it goes. It may just be a verbal pissing contest instead of an actual fight lol. Oh my God, I totally agree with you! You don't need to tell me twice lol I know I hate Elena sooo much it's not even funny I was so happy when she left the show.

**Queenofpop: **Katherine. Elena can go die in a hole for all I care.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**klandgraf2007: **So much tension. Especially in this chapter too haha. Yeah, it really is, but it'll get better! Thanks for the review, here's the chapter!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. Thank you!

**Sheridan111000: **Here you go! Thanks so much!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Haha I'm not going to kill Elena just for the sake of killing Elena. I'll only do it if it feels right but I don't think that's gonna happen. But I can promise she will not be in Season 7!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Thanks so much! I studied really hard and I think they went alright, so we'll see how it goes. Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Thank you!

**Guest: **Thanks. Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**rory: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **She's gotten kidnapped in every season, even the one where she was "dead" lol I actually hate her because she's totally the definition of a damsel in distress, you know? Ugh.

**Guest: **Apparently, yes! Here you go!

**Guest: **Lol yep there's Damon for you.

**Guest: **Yeah, it was mostly this month, but I'm probably not gonna be able to do anything for the next two weeks either because I have finals now. Here's the chapter! And the AP Exams were good. I'll have to wait until July to find out what I did though I'll keep everyone updated :)

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. Finals aren't over yet, but they will be soon.

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.

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**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter.


	15. Why Can't I Stop Thinking About This?

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter. **

* * *

**Chapter 15**

**Why Can't I Stop Thinking About This?**

xxx

"What do you mean Luke wants me to come?" Cass snapped into the phone as she walked across Whitmore campus to the sandwich shop to get herself brunch.

In the few hours she'd been up, she'd already been for a run, showered, and dressed so that she could go to some freshman information session that Jo suggested she attend if she was thinking about joining some classes in her free time. 'Free time' was more of an excuse; her 'free time' consisted of her spending time with Damon, something that she really didn't want to do, so taking a few classes here or there would provide her with an excuse to get away for a while. Besides, she needed her life back.

But as she walked over to the sandwich shop, she'd called Liv to wish her a happy birthday (despite the fact that she was fully aware of what had transpired when she needed help getting out of the high school when Kai kidnapped her), only to find out that her father was in town. But that wasn't even the worst part: Luke wanted her to join them for dinner.

Liv sighed. _"I'm so sorry, Cassandra. He's just really freaked out about this whole thing and he thinks that if you're there, it'll be better. Even though he did what he did, Dad still has a soft spot for you." _

"Soft spot?" the witch scoffed. "The man threatened me into killing Josette. He doesn't give two shits about me or my opinions."

_"Don't kill the messenger. Luke wanted me to ask._" Liv paused for a while as Cassandra stepped into the line of the sandwich shop, still with her phone on her ear. At last, she heard Liv inhale anxiously. _"So...will you do it? Will you come to dinner tonight?"_

"Liv, I-I don't know." Cass tossed her hair frustratedly and looked down at her feet with a shrug. "Let me think about it. I'll get back to you before tonight."

_"Okay. I can text you the address if you decide to come_."

Cass closed her eyes tightly. Damn it. Liv already decided she was coming, anyway. She knew she didn't have a choice. Without saying anything else, she hung up the phone and slipped it into her pocket just as the line for the sandwiches moved up. When she moved forward, however, she felt herself stumbling back on account of another body purposely standing in front of her.

"Oh, my God, I'm sorry, I—" Cass stopped herself as she looked up into a pair of crystal blue eyes and realized immediately who it was. She swallowed down the thickness in her throat and removed her eyes quickly. "God, Damon, don't do that."

He looked down at her with a bit of fury tracing his irises. "You haven't been returning my calls. Again."

"I've been busy."

"You're never busy." She ignored him and slipped past his presence to move forward in the line. After she ordered from the cashier, she stepped off to the side and attempted to ignore Damon again, but he refused to let her off that easy. Eventually, he had her cornered as she waited for her sub to be made. She avoided his look at every turn, but his eyes were intent on making her look at him. "Cass, we need to talk. Badly."

"I really don't have anything to say to you." She turned her head and, though she wasn't that devout, prayed to whatever God there was that he would leave her. Her prayers went unanswered, as he only pushed further.

"I don't care if you have something to say to me or not. _I _have something to say."

"Then say it."

"It's not the kind of thing you talk about in the middle of a sandwich shop!" he hissed at her while she smiled at the man that had made her sub and grabbed it from him quickly, sharply turning around on her heel to leave. Damon followed her, his sandwich already in his hand. She didn't look back at him once. "Cass, stop this. Please."

"Damon..." Finally, she spun around at him when they were outside the shop and looked him square in the eye. He could tell, however, that it was taking everything in her not to turn her sandwich into mush with the magic the spilled from her hands. He didn't understand why she was so distant, and it was confusing him. He watched her as she sighed. "Look, today's not a great day, okay? It's Liv and Luke's birthday, which means they have to merge. And apparently, I've been enlisted into talking my dad out of making them do it, so I need to deal with that first before I deal with whatever it is you need to talk with me about."

"Later, then." He searched her eyes for any sort of commitment, but he found them full of empty promises.

"We can try." Cass turned and whispered under her breath, loud enough for Damon to hear it, "But I don't know what it's going to help."

This time, when she left, he didn't follow her. He didn't really know why he cared so much, why he wanted to see her so badly. He didn't know why his heart jumped out of his chest whenever he saw her lately, anxious to speak to her. He didn't know why the sight of her made him sweaty and nervous. He didn't know why her presence affected him so, but he also didn't know if he wanted to find out.

Minutes later, he walked back to Alaric's on-campus apartment, where he found Elena rushing around trying to gather her things. He knew she was late to the hospital.

"Hey," Damon greeted her as he opened the door and stepped inside. Elena looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey."

"Sandwich?"

"I can't. I'm, uh, late for my volunteer shift at the hospital." He didn't care. He held out his sandwich for her to bite into quickly. While she grabbed her coffee mug from the table, Damon turned from her and walked into the room where they were holding the catatonic Kai, who was hooked up to both an IV and an EKG machine to make sure that he was stable. He looked down at the serial killer with a frown.

"Still counting sheep...or whatever the hell you psychopaths dream of?"

Elena sighed behind him. "Look, Alaric's gone out of town to get some mystical thingamabob to give Jo an edge. And your job is to babysit Kai, not smother him with a pillow."

Damon looked back at her, disappointed. "Fine."

"And he starts twitching or something, just give him another 50 milligrams of pentobarbital."

"You're so cute when you're all doctorly." She smiled at him and turned to leave, but just as she headed for the door, Damon called her back as he noticed her hospital ID on the nightstand. "Oh, hey, you forgot this!" he called to her as he turned around and met her halfway to give her the badge. She grabbed it and tried to turn away, but just as she did, he kept a firm hand on her to pull her back. He smiled slyly at her. "You're not free tonight by any chance, are you? Because I know this little Italian joint that has eggplant _so good _you actually think you're eating people."

Elena laughed. "And I happen to have a weird eggplant obsession."

"Perfect!"

"Great."

"And I'm thinking...maybe after that...go to the art house theater? They're playing some pretentious French flick."

She laughed again, this time a little bit more wholeheartedly than before. "I don't speak French, Damon."

"Not to see the movie, silly." He grabbed her badge and opened it so that he could slip the lanyard around her neck. Elena watched him as he brushed her hair out of the lanyard's way and said softly, "To hide in the back and throw popcorn at hipsters."

Elena smiled, as if she were entertaining the idea, but before she said yes, she trailed off and her smile dropped a bit. Damon realized what she was thinking, and he tried to catch himself before she realized. However, Elena got to him first. "Wait, we've gone on this date already, haven't we?" He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, expressing his guilt. Elena whined, "Damon, that's cheating, okay? You already know everything about me!"

"Cheating?" He scoffed. "Cheating's erasing all of our epic memories. That's cheating."

"I'm serious," she snapped. "Look if we're gonna do this, then...we can't just pick up where we left off. Because I don't remember where that is."

Damon frowned, but nodded. "I understand. Where would you like to start?"

"At the beginning. I'm off at six, you can pick me up then."

"Fine."

"Fine!"

"Great."

"Great."

"Good."

"Bye." Elena laughed as she headed for the door and walked out, giving him a sassy look. Damon whispered his own goodbye and watched as she left, but a wave of guilt crashed over him. He sighed when she was gone, trying not to remember the way he had felt just a few minutes earlier when Cassandra had refused to talk to him about what he'd said the night before. Why did he say what he said? Was he really not sorry that she wanted to be with him? Did he really want to be with her after he'd spent so long trying to get back to Elena?

Then he remembered all those nights with Cassandra. All those lonely, lonely nights. He just couldn't win. If he was with Cassandra, he would be guilty for betraying Elena, memory loss or not. If he was with Elena, he would feel guilty for betraying the way he was feeling inside. It was a lose-lose situation.

"Fuck me," Damon muttered under his breath while he flopped down on the couch and tore into his sandwich.

xxx

Cass watched as Liv and Luke approached the front of Whitmore's infamous restaurant bar, the one that Cass had come to the very first night she'd arrived back in Virginia. She had her arms crossed impatiently and was tapping her foot as the two birthday twins came near, and when she saw them, she scowled.

"You're late."

Liv sighed. "I know, I know."

Luke gave his sister an annoyed side glance. "If it weren't for her boyfriend, we would've been here twenty minutes ago."

"We're here now. That's all that matters." She turned back to Cass. "Thank you for coming, Cassandra. You don't know how much this means to us."

She looked back and forth between Luke and Liv, who looked at her with so much gratitude she couldn't stand to be upset at them any longer. Cass uncrossed her arms and smiled softly at the two of them.

"You don't need to thank me." She stepped forward and pulled them closer to her hugging them both at the same time. "Happy birthday, you two."

They both hugged her back. Though it was strange being so close to someone who had returned after twenty years of being absent in their lives, they found it comforting. As did she.

Luke and Liv both thanked her at the same time before Luke stepped to the door and held it open for both his sisters. When they all walked in, they saw their father sitting in the center of the restaurant, waiting almost as impatiently as Cassandra had been for the company. When he saw Luke and Liv at the door, he stood up graciously and smiled. He caught sight of Cassandra, but the presence of his two 22-year-old children made him happier than ever. Once he had hugged both of his twins, he turned to Cass, who waited to the side awkwardly. Liv and Luke walked to the table and sat down, and as they settled in, Joshua put a hand on Cassandra's shoulder and looked her seriously in the eyes.

"You may not believe me after we saw each other last..." Joshua trailed off as he gave her a small smile. "But I am really happy to see you, Cassandra."

She gave her dad the same smile back, but she didn't even know what to believe. He'd done so many horrible things, but it had never been his fault. Malachai had tormented their lives, it was understandable that her father would try to fight dirty in the same way. Still, that did not excuse his actions.

"I've missed nearly twenty birthdays." She looked over at Luke and Liv while they all sat down at the table. "I'll be damned if I miss any more."

After the first ten minutes of the seemingly peaceful dinner—during which Liv and Luke both sucked up to their father so hard, Cass thought their lips would get stuck to their father's asses by that point—the ultimatum finally came out. Joshua stared at his two blonde children from across the table with disbelief and shock in his eyes as they waited for their father to respond to their loaded request.

"You're refusing to merge?" he demanded. No one said anything, but Luke and Liv looked at each other nervously. Cass interrupted in an attempt to salvage the peaceful atmosphere.

"Well..._refuse _is a harsh word..."

"We want to consider other options," Luke added. Cass nodded at him.

"Options are good, right Dad?"

He didn't even looked at the daughter on his side. "There are no other options. If a set of twins doesn't merge, the Gemini bloodline will cease to exist upon my death. That means the entire coven will die! Is that what you want?"

"No! Of course not!" Luke refused immediately. "But you are in perfect health. Kai is on ice. That means we have time to figure this out."

Joshua leaned forward and widened his eyes. "There's nothing to figure out. This is what you were born to do."

"No, Dad. This is why Kai and Jo were born." Liv looked desperately between her father and her brother, exasperated. "We're just the backup plan you bred because you thought your first batch had a design flaw."

"Kai is a psychopath! An extremely dangerous one!" he exclaimed. Cass scoffed.

"There's no point in stating the obvious here, I spent a whole twenty years trapped in another world with him. Alone." Joshua turned to his brunette-haired daughter just as she downed a Coke, as without compulsion, she wasn't allowed to have alcoholic beverages—the one thing that sucked about being in the present times again. She turned her head and locked eyes with her father. "You're underestimating Jo. With a little more time, she can do this. I haven't gotten the chance to help her with it, but I can do it. I can help her control her magic."

"Please." Joshua leaned back in his chair with a frown. "You can't even control your own magic, Cassandra. You never could."

"I learned a lot while I was away, for your information!" she shouted angrily, but right as her temper spiked, the Coke on the table suddenly fizzed up incredibly high and spilled all down the sides, soaking their meals. Liv and Luke jumped back as Cassandra looked down at the drink and clenched her fist tightly to stop herself from doing any more damage. Her father stared at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"Oh, really?" The whole table fell silent as Cassandra backed down and Joshua leaned forward to speak with the twins yet again. He said, in a more soft-spoken, less judgmental voice, "I'm not asking you to do anything I haven't done myself."

"That's easy for you to say." Liv scoffed furiously. "You merged with your twin brother and you won. You didn't drop dead!"

"It doesn't work like that and you know it! One will absorb traits from the other. Both of your souls will unite into a new being."

"Who looks exactly like me," Luke finished, feeling as if he'd repeated the same words over and over and over again. Their father waited for Luke to explain. "Yeah. I know I'm stronger than Liv. So that means I will win if we merge. So you can put whatever poetic spin you want on it, but I will be killing my own sister! I can't do that to her."

The table fell painstakingly silent, but as Joshua looked between his twins to try and find a solution that would please everyone, Cass heard her phone ring sharply in her purse. Her family looked at her, as if she had done something completely wrong, so when she pulled out the phone and saw it was Damon, she figured she better answer it before he called her 72 times like he usually did. She answered it angrily.

"I told you I couldn't talk today, Damon. Leave me alone," she muttered murderously as she turned away from the rest of her family at the table. Damon sighed over the phone.

_"I'm not calling about that. I need to ask your dad one question...you think you could be a doll and put him on for me?" _

"What the hell do you need to speak to my dad for?" she panicked. She could almost hear Damon's annoying frown.

_"Does it matter? Please." _

She thought about it for a moment, and then finally gave up. She handed the phone to her dad beside her, who held it up to his ear with a confused look on his face. His children listened intently, vying to hear through the other side of the phone.

Joshua stiffened. "Yes?"

_"Hello, sir. Damon Salvatore here. We had Thanksgiving together..." _Joshua didn't answer, so Damon continued. _"Anyway, I've been sitting here googling celestial events happening today and I was just curious, would a Mercury-Venus conjunction give you enough juice to have a little Gemini merge party?" _

He scowled. "Why?"

_"I'm gonna take that evasive answer as yes. So here's the situation, I'm gonna need you to use that planet party to merge your set of blonde twins ASAP. Because, well, unfortunately, your formerly comatose son is gonna be on the loose and hell-bent on beating you to the punch."_

Despite Cassandra's phone on high volume, none of them heard what Damon was saying on the other side of the phone. All they knew was that Joshua had an alarmed look on his face, and before they could ask, he excused himself to get up from the table. When he was gone, Luke, Liv, and Cassandra all tried to figure out what was wrong, but they couldn't deduce it by simply guessing. Eventually, when Joshua didn't come back to the table after five minutes, they decided to track him down. Cassandra, however, stayed at the table. But there was something inside of her that knew there was something deeply, deeply wrong.

Why did Damon call her? Why did her father look like he had seen a ghost. _Shit. _She sighed and tossed her napkin onto the table as she followed the path the twins had taken a few minutes ago to find their dad. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. And it probably had something to do with the pain-in-the-ass twin merge.

She rolled up the sleeves on her blazer as she cautiously walked outside, trying not to trip in her three-inch heels that she had stupidly chosen for the occasion. She should've stuck to her gladiator shoes, but what was the fun in that? As Cassandra walked out from the back of the restaurant bar, she found herself shocked when her father was standing just below her, chanting away the merge incantation while Luke and Liv tried desperately to fight him.

Enraged, Cassandra waved her hand to create a massive gust of wind that had her father on the ground, releasing Liv and Luke.

"I can't believe this!" Cass shouted angrily as she sprinted down the stairs to come over to her father. Just as she did, she heard Liv's name being shouted, but she didn't even bother to turn it around. It was Tyler, who had rushed over to Liv as soon as he realized what Damon had done. Cass stood above her father, a look of fury in her eyes. "It's one thing to condemn me to what you did. But to force them to do this merge is too far!"

"We can't let him be the leader of the coven, Cass," Joshua pleaded to her, shaking his head, nearly on the verge of tears. She, too, was getting emotional at the sight of her father so desperate. "You understand that more than anyone."

"Sinking to his level so we can prevent that from happening isn't the answer!"

"It has to be." Joshua lifted himself up from the floor, and unexpectedly, he waved his hand as well to force Cassandra back, so that she plummeted into the empty alcohol cartons in the back. The next thing Luke and Liv knew, Joshua was gunning right for them, but before he had the chance to, Tyler attacked with primal instincts. He had no choice but to knock Liv's father out cold, but the second Liv knew he was getting carried away, she shouted at him to stop. Cassandra let herself up from the ground with Luke's help and brushed herself off as Liv grabbed Tyler's hand and pulled him back to her. Luckily, however, Joshua was incapacitated long enough for them to escape before a merge could happen.

Everything was silent, aside from Liv assuring Tyler that she was okay. As Luke and Cass looked at Joshua's unconscious body, the both of them were sick to their stomachs. Cass held back the anxiousness she was getting from their current situation.

"Th-This has to end," she demanded softly, turning to Luke with knowing eyes. The two of them looked at each other cautiously before Luke let her hand go and nodded.

"It will. Come on."

Cass and Luke both started to walk off, but as they did, Liv shook her head at her brother in dismay.

"Luke, where are you going?"

Cass and Luke both stopped, but he turned around to look at his sister seriously. Liv stared at him, fearful that he would do something that he would regret; or, worse, something that would hurt her. He sighed and said softly, "Do you trust me?"

"Where are you going?" Liv demanded. She ignored the tears that threatened at Luke's eyes as he assured her gently.

"I'll be back soon. Promise."

But they both knew it was empty. Liv didn't want to admit it, but as she watched her brother run out of the alley with their sister keeping up the pace, she had an inkling that he was never coming back. To prevent her own sanity, she pushed that inkling back as far as it would go and hoped that he would come back to her. She couldn't stand to lose her brother.

xxx

Luke wasted no time in preventing the merge between Kai and Jo from happening when he and Cassandra reached the site he knew Kai would be at, attempting to perform the merge with his sister before anyone could stop it. Cass and Luke ran as fast as they could until they reached them, not quite into the merge enough to make it difficult to stop. The wind had only started moving; the leaves had only started to blow violently in the makeshift wind. With a flick of her hand, the merge between Kai and Jo was over, as the elder doctor fell to the floor unconscious, making Luke and Cassandra's presence known to him.

Kai stared, gritting his teeth angrily. "What the hell did you just do?"

"She'll thank me in the morning," Cass shouted at him as she and Luke both stormed up to Kai. Her head cocked to the side as Kai looked at both Cass and Luke in curiosity. "As for you...well, you'll never thank me but here goes—"

She braced to use her magic against him, but before she could, Luke lifted his hand to give the sister beside him an unconscious spell of her own. Cassandra dropped to the floor, clueless, leaving Luke and Kai the only two Geminis left. Kai chuckled under his breath.

"Ouch."

"It was only a little knock on the head. I know you're so concerned, but don't worry." Luke stomped over to Kai to stare him right in the face as he spat, "She'll be fine. Because you and I are gonna merge and get this over with."

Kai stared into his brother's eyes, and for a moment, he thought he was actually serious. But then, Kai erupted into laughter as he thought about what a ridiculous idea it was. As he laughed, he brought his hands up to slap around Luke's face playfully, but the pissed off witch only shoved him back. Kai held up his hands in surrender as he tried to recover from his laughing spell.

"Whoa! Whoa, you wanna merge with me? I hate to break it to you, little brother, but we're not twins, alright? That's not how this is supposed to work."

Luke shrugged. "Oh, that's true. But we share the same parents, the same bloodline, and thanks to your timeout in the magic penalty box, we're the same age. So...it's definitely Hail Mary...and maybe it won't work. But..." the other twin whipped out a knife from inside his suit jacket and cut into his palm to draw fresh blood. "...I'd do anything to save my sister. So we're gonna give it the old college try."

"Thanks." Kai backed away with a sour smile. "But I'm gonna pass."

"Phasmatos motus arrovox!" Luke shouted, causing Kai to come straight to him so that Luke's hand held Kai's face tightly, refusing to let him go anywhere. The angry witch watched as Luke gave him a fake pitiful look. "What's wrong? Are you afraid to play chicken with someone who might actually beat you?"

The comment pissed Kai off the right amount, just enough to cause him to release himself from Luke's grasp and angrily grasp his hand to start the merge. Kai stared at him intensely.

"Fine. It's your funeral."

They started the ritual, and unfortunately, Jo and Cassandra were too late waking up. By the time the two of them opened their eyes and realized what was going on, the world was shaking, the wind was blowing, and Kai and Luke had gotten so far into the merge that it was impossible to pull them out. Cassandra struggled onto her hands and knees, where she made her way over to Jo, who was screaming at Luke, knowing full well what he was doing. The street lights around them all blew out, causing them to fall into complete darkness.

"Luke!" Jo cried. She turned her head to Cassandra, who looked over at her brothers with sadness in her eyes. She knew there was nothing she could do, but Jo had to try. "Cassandra! Cassandra, please! Do something!"

"I can't!" Cassandra shouted over the loud wind and the sparks that flew from the street lights. She moved her hair out of her mouth and looked over at Kai and Luke. "We're too late! If I use my magic to pull them out now, they'll both die!"

Just as she finished shouting, the world went silent. Kai and Luke, both with eyes wide open with glossed over pupils, stood frozen in their places. Jo and Cass watched in horror as the two of them fell to the ground at the same time, landing parallel to one another. Jo shouted so loud in protest that Cassandra was sure everyone within five miles heard it. She lifted herself up from the ground and ran over to the younger twin, holding him in her arms as she cried his name over and over again. When Cassandra was finally able to get up, she slowly walked over to Malachai, who was unconscious on the cold ground. She could feel the magic in the air, the atoms that Luke and Malachai now shared. She stood in shock above Kai's body.

It was done.

xxx

Damon watched as Elena fled the room, intensely emotional after fighting the long fight to bring Caroline's mother back from the dead after so many things had gone wrong. He didn't blame her. It had been a long day.

"Where are you going?" Damon inquired as he followed her out of the hospital room into the hallways. Elena kept her back turned to him as she rushed away, choking back tears.

"I need some air or some water or something because..." She finally came to a stop and turned around, allowing Damon to face her and come to a slow a few feet before her. Elena looked so anxious, so frightened. He wanted to comfort her, but he could feel that tightening inside of him that told him it was wrong. He didn't know what he wanted. He was being unfair to everyone. Nevertheless, Elena continued. "She almost died in my arms, Damon. Caroline's mom almost died in my arms!"

He couldn't help it now. He reached out and touched her face to try to soothe her, but he knew deep down that it was wrong. He stared at Elena then and watched as a strange look overcame her face. Before he knew it, she had grabbed a fistful of his hair gently and leaned up to kiss him, so intensely that he could feel the grief on her lips.

He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he didn't at the same time. He didn't want to kiss her because every time he let himself think, he found himself thinking about Cassandra...about what it would be like to kiss _her_. How wrong was that, thinking about kissing someone else when there was someone right there for the taking. There was that guilt again, pecking and pecking and pecking at him. He shouldn't be kissing Elena, not when he felt something real for Cassandra. He had to stop it.

"Elena. Elena, slow down." Damon pushed her away gently, causing Elena to become confused, but he tried to let her down as easy as he could without giving anything away. Hurting her now would only make him a dick. "I thought you wanted to start over."

She shook her head. "I don't care anymore. Life's too short, immortal or not. I don't wanna waste another minute." She pulled him back onto her lips, and although he kissed back, he couldn't find it in himself to carry it on any longer. He pushed her away and tried again.

"I...I think..." Damon trailed off, trying to find his words. Elena backed up slowly as she realized he didn't want the same thing. "I think I need some time to think. This is all a bit much."

Elena looked at him, shocked. "O-Okay."

"It's not you. I just...I need to go find Jo and Kai." Damon scrambled for any excuse he possibly could. Elena opened her mouth to say something, but he was gone before she could even think it. Damon disappeared from the hospital, all the while feeling a big, empty hole in his heart that he thought Elena would fill when the time came. Turns out, he was wrong. It was just as big as it was when he was separated from her.

xxx

"Luke," Josette whispered beside Cassandra, who was standing between both Luke and Kai with a blank expression on her face. She tried to figure out where the magic was going, but it was up in the air. She wouldn't know until it moved. "Luke, wake up. Luke."

"Cassandra?" they heard, and Jo and Cass turned their heads to see Damon squinting in the darkness, until he finally flashed forward so that he was by Cassandra's side. He came up to her and put his hands on her face, noticing a small cut on the side of her forehead from when Luke had knocked her out and her head had hit the pavement. She flinched away from him as he demanded, "Are you okay? What the hell are you doing out here?"

"Calm down, Damon. I'm fine." She slipped her skin out of his hands and crossed her arms over her chest. "And I should be asking you the same thing. Did you have anything to do with this?"

Damon looked down at Kai and Luke with an ashamed expression. "I—"

"He's not supposed to be here!" Jo shouted at Damon from down on the ground through her tears. Cass turned to Jo and watched as she cried at him. "The only reason he's here is because you let Kai out!"

"No, no, look." Damon reached out and pulled Cassandra's face back to look at him. She flinched away again, but he desperately tried to explain himself. "Cass, I had a plan. I had a—"

"I don't want to hear it, Damon." She stepped away from him and looked down at her brothers. "What's done is done. It's over."

"I can give him some of my blood. I can heal him..."

"You can't." Cass turned to look at him sharply. Jo looked up at Damon as well, less angry than before.

"It's up to them now. Whoever wakes up is the winner. And whoever doesn't..." she choked back on her words, and as she did, Luke gasped awake in her arms. Jo's heart filled with joy as she heard the gasp back to life, but Cassandra turned away. She knew what was happening.

"Can you hear me?" Jo whispered urgently. "Can you hear me?!"

"He can't," Cass muttered as she walked over to Kai as a tear fell down her face. "He can't hear you. The magic isn't in him. It's...in _him_."

She stared down at Kai as Luke closed his eyes in Josette's arms right as Cassandra made her observation. She could almost feel the magic from the other witch transfer into Kai, filling him with huge powers. She could hear Jo cry as Kai emerged victorious. She jumped back as his pupils dilated and he came to consciousness. Damon reached forward and grabbed Cassandra's arms, pulling her back to him so that she was safe. Kai lifted himself from the ground and cracked his neck before giving the three before him a wicked smile.

"You win some, you lose some." He shrugged. "Except for me. I always win."

Damon pushed Cass behind him and moved forward, just about to attack Kai, but before he could, the witch disappeared, the new leader of the Gemini Coven.

xxx

"You didn't have to bring me here," Cass muttered under her breath as Damon's car pulled up in front of Jo's apartment. They would've brought Jo with them, too, but she wanted to stay with Luke until Liv was able to get there and see his body. He put the car in park and smiled faintly.

"I mean, I wasn't just going to leave you out on the street late at night."

"Yeah, well, you've been staying at Alaric's with Elena." She dropped her eyes, as she could tell Damon's was on her. She reached out and grabbed the handle on the car door to get out of the car. "I'll let you get back to her."

"Stop doing that." Damon locked the doors so that she couldn't get out and grabbed her arm, forcing her back to him. She grabbed her arm back again and he allowed her the room, realizing that she wasn't comfortable with him touching her again. But the good news was, she was looking at him, even if it was out of irritation. He stared at her with longing, and she knew it. "You and I need to talk. You promised."

"Damon, I don't know what you want me to say."

"You don't have to say anything, Cassandra. I want you to shut up and listen," he barked. At the tone, she leaned back in the seat of the convertible and watched as he exhaled heavily and turned back to the steering wheel, where he took a moment to himself before he continued. "You know, when I...when I died, when the other side collapsed, when I went to the prison world...there was this..._emptiness _in me that I didn't understand. The longer we stayed there, the bigger the emptiness got. When you and I were together, the emptiness was sort of...filled. Not filled to the point where it was sustainable, but it was filled. I didn't feel empty when I was with you, I felt like I was whole...at least, for a while. Each time we were together, I could feel the emptiness getting less and less and less and less, and I didn't understand why. All I wanted to do was get back to Elena, but yet...I didn't want to let you go. I didn't want to stop filling that emptiness inside of me."

He turned to look at her and merely found her staring at her hands. She mumbled, "I get it, Damon. You had a void and sex filled it. That's all."

"But that's not all," he corrected her. Cass's eyes slowly drifted up to find his captivating hers. He shifted up in his seat and took a breath, a long one that made her head spin. "Cass, when we got back here, when I didn't have you anymore, I could feel the emptiness again. Blame it on Elena forgetting our relationship or whatever, but I have a feeling that the emptiness still would've been there. Because what she could give me, I think, is no longer what I want. I think I've had this emptiness for a while because it's never really been filled by her. I think there's always been some emptiness when I was with her, but I didn't want to admit it because I was scared that I would never find someone who would love me like that again. And then she kissed me today but why...?"

He trailed off staring at her lips, but she didn't get the hint. She shook her head, confused. "Why what?"

His eyes locked with hers, but they flickered back and forth between her lips and her hazel colored irises. In a low voice, he whispered, "Why can't I stop thinking about this?"

The second the last word left his mouth, he surged forward and captured her lips passionately, and it was everything he'd thought of a hundred times over. She was reluctant at first, more shocked than anything, but eventually, she slid her hands up along his face and into his hair. Damon kissed her with something different this time, something she didn't really understand, herself. His hands coiled around her back and clutched her closer to him, despite their already tight space in the small Camero.

It was slower than their other kisses, but it only made it more intense. Eventually, when Damon couldn't handle it any longer, his fingers coiled around the back of her knee and he flipped her over the console onto his lap in the driver's seat, and she didn't object. She kissed him harder, wrapping her arms around his neck so tightly, allowing him to draw her closer onto his body. Her hips moved in rhythm with his, desperate to feel anything that would satisfy the insatiable nature of their touches. Desperate for air, Cassandra pulled away, but Damon's lips never left her skin. He pushed her body back so her spine arched as his lips trailed from her jaw to her neck to her chest, where he kissed the skin over and over again. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.

"I can't do this," Cass breathed, and Damon didn't have a choice in the matter. Her skin scorched his lips as she became overwhelmed and unlocked the driver's side door, slipping out as fast as everything had escalated. Damon, left high and dry, quickly lifted himself from the driver's seat and called out to her.

"Cass! Cass, wait!"

"I can't do this, Damon!" she shouted as she turned back at him with eyes as red as her skin was from her fluster. He shook his head in disbelief as she swallowed thickly. "I'm not the one who can fill that void. I just can't."

"Cassandra!" he shouted after her, but she had already opened Jo's door and slipped inside quickly. Damon sighed as he sat back down in the seat of his car and shut the door. He knew Cass was just inside there, and he wanted nothing more than to go in and kiss her so hard she wouldn't have time to think about what she could or could not do. He slammed his fists down on the steering wheel in anger, but ultimately, he had no other choice but to leave and figure out a way to mend it in the morning.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! The next two chapters (I think it's two...idk lol) won't be cannon, so it should be fun! Hold onto your hats, I'll try to update soon :)**

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**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Oh, trust me, Elena will find out eventually and she's gonna be pissed! But first, I need Cass and Damon to get to the point where they're in an actual relationship before they go telling Elena, so it'll be a little bit. I'm debating on whether I want to stick it to Elena and have Cass tell her or Kai tell her or if I want Damon to do the right thing and tell her himself. We'll see. Thanks for reviewing! :)

**lokidoki9: **Aw well I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the review! :)

**RHatch89: **Nope :) That would be a terrible way to end things lol I'm not that cruel. Thanks for reviewing!

**WickedlyMinx: **Aw I'm glad! Well, they got closer alright :P

**Guest: **No problem! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Ugh, that's so trueeee it's annoying af like why does she have to always be the one who's kidnapped or something bad happens to her like is there some sort of target that says "KIDNAP ME" on her? It's soooo annoying. Katherine was my fav. I don't know, I haven't decided what I'm going to do for Season 7 because tbh I liked Season 7 but I'm not sure how it's gonna fit with this story so we'll see what happens. Thank you!

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hahaha, he'll have some more realizations later too :)

**geminigurl89: **I'm glad! Thanks for the review!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **He (sort of) did this chapter? I don't know, he'll get better at sorting out his feelings in the next few chapters so yay. Eventually he'll admit it :P Thanks for reviewing!

**LMarie99: **THANK YOU! So true ugh Elena just annoys the crap out of everyone.

**Guest: **I haven't really planned anything because I don't think there's anything else to tell...they kind of just tortured each other back and forth for eighteen years lol it's pretty self explanatory. I may flashback some more to Cass's earlier life I'm not sure yet. Thanks for reviewing!

**Hope10: **All will be revealed in time. No, Cass's magic is too strong for him to take it so there's no other way. Thanks for reviewing!

**sobreyra274: **Thank you so much! Aw, yeah, they're adorable. They (sort of) got together this chapter but we'll see more of them soon. Here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for the review.

**Guest: **Mmm...in the next few chapters? No. Later in the story? Maybe.

**Guest: **I'm not going to reveal all my trade secrets! The season finale's not too far away so you'll find out soon. Thanks for reviewing :)

**Guest: **Here's the chapter! There weren't many Kai/Cass scenes in this chapter but there will definitely be more once I return to cannon.

**Guest: **Of course! She's her sister. I thought it was a little strange Jo made Elena her bridesmaid but not any of her family members...so yeah that's not happening in my story. We'll get there soon!

**Guest: **That's a really good idea! I may play off of that a little bit, but I also have another idea of what's gonna go down too so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for suggesting that, I'll definitely take it under consideration. Here's the chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.


	16. I'm Him

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter.**

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**Chapter 16**

**I'm Him**

xxx

Cass was relaxing lazily in the staff's lounge at the hospital, her feet swung carelessly over the arm of the chair she was sitting in as she scoffed down a mediocre cup of yogurt she'd picked up from the cafeteria a few minutes earlier. Jo was behind her, changing into her scrubs for her shift as her sister stared longingly at a painting in the corner. She licked the spoon clean of yogurt and listened to the doctor behind her sigh in sheer confusion.

"Look, after what Damon did to Luke, I'm not exactly his biggest fan right now." Cass scoffed under her breath as she gathered another spoonful of the delicious strawberry paste. "But I don't really understand what you're doing, Cassandra. From what you're telling me, I think he made it inherently clear that he wants to be with you."

"Really? Then you obviously didn't hear a word I said," the brunette teenager chided, swinging her legs onto the ground so she could sit up straight. She turned to Jo with a scowl just as the doctor pulled out her lab coat. Her voice unintentionally raised. "He doesn't care about me, Jo! He's totally lost! We were sex, that's all we were...he knows it, I know it, we both know it; and he's trying to fill the...the _hurt _that his girlfriend caused him when she erased his memory by being with me and I can't do it! I can't go around in circles anymore."

"Did you ever consider the possibility that Damon doesn't want to keep going in circles, which is why he kissed you? Did you ever consider that, maybe, you're the one pushing him away and going in circles yourself so you don't get hurt again?" Cass didn't say anything, but merely stared at the floor while Jo let out a heavy exhale and sat down on the coffee table in front of her sister. She put a reassuring hand on her knee. "Cassandra, ever since you told me about Ethan, I knew it would be that much harder to move on. He didn't do it intentionally, but he hurt you...well, technically, Dad hurt you when he sent you to a 1994 Prison World that forced you to build some serious walls around yourself. But for all intents and purposes, you're safe now. You have your life back. You can't keep living it like you're back on an endless loop of the same day anymore. Change is good."

Cassandra hesitated for a moment, and finally, she looked up with a less difficult look on her face. "What if I'm okay with not getting hurt again? What if I don't want to change?"

"Then you would be a fool." Jo lifted herself from the coffee table and grabbed her ID. Right before she left Cassandra's side, she looked down at her with a grimace. "I really wish it wasn't Damon but...if he's what's going to make you happy, you should try. You deserve to have a little bit of happiness after all the hell you've been through."

_The hell you've been through, _Cass repeated in her head as Jo gave her a smile and walked out of the lounge to do her rounds. When she was gone, Cassandra sat back in her chair and thought about it more while scraping what she could of the yogurt out of the can. Her mind drifted back to the first night she met Damon. His raven black hair rustled quietly in the night wind, his blue eyes sparkled like the stars in the night, but his face held a particularly despaired expression, so lonesome it was nearly heartbreaking.

She remembered thinking immediately how beautiful he was, but considering the possibility that her vision had been so distorted because of the fact that he was the first man she had seen in nearly two decades. Okay, now she was just plain lying to herself. He was extraordinarily beautiful by nothing else except pure, unadulterated genetics. And when her mind drifted, she thought of all those nights she spent with him. The first night, of course, was the hardest for her. Something in the way he had taken her so cruelly had made her entire life tear at the seams. Two decades without sex and her first encounter was an emotionally horrifying experience; something that should never be wished upon anyone, ever. Then, as time went on, Cass could start to feel it change. Maybe she didn't see it then, but Damon's words the night before had stuck to her.

As much as she hated to admit it, she too had a void inside of her that had never really been filled. Her life had been particularly empty since she was a child, and the only person who had ever made her feel something had been Ethan. Still, it was a different sort of feeling with him. Something she didn't quite understand and (truth be told) wasn't sure she ever would.

Breaking out of her daze, Cass looked down at her spoon to find it licked clean of any trace of yogurt. The can was hollow. This wouldn't do, as her stomach continued to ache for food. Begrudgingly, she raised herself from her chair, left the staff lounge, and walked down the hall to the vending machine. Her lips pursed in thought as she stared at the healthy hospital snacks, trying to decide what to get. Granola or fruit cup? Granola or fruit cup...?

"If you get a fruit cup, I'll share it with you." Cass turned her head to find Damon walking nonchalantly up to the side of the vending machine, leaning up against it arrogantly. He smiled wide. "What? I like the strawberries."

She took a moment to stabilize her breath. "What are you doing here?"

"Did you forget that one of my friends is in the hospital?" Damon watched the young girl as she slipped a few quarters into the machine and pressed the numbers for a granola bar. He frowned at her choice in food. "So you leave me high and dry last night _and _you deny me the decency of a good fruit cup? Now that's just rude."

"What do you want, Damon?"

He instantly turned serious, slipping his hands out of his pockets. His mouth opened slightly, about to answer her question honestly, but she watched as he closed it with caution as his mind decided against making a fool of himself again. At last, he crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged nonchalantly.

"Nothing, I guess." He pulled his lips back into a forced smile. "See you later."

_Holy shit_, Cassandra thought to herself as Damon turned from her and walked away. Who the hell had she just spoken to? Was that the same Damon Salvatore she had known? She wore his face, but the real Damon Salvatore would never give up so easily. Against her better judgement, she chased after him before he could walk into Liz's room and grabbed his arm.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait." Damon turned around, only at the will of Cassandra's pleading. He stared down at her indifferently as she gave him her look of puzzlement. Cassandra swallowed thickly, realizing that she didn't know exactly what she was going to say anything once she'd gotten him stable. All she knew was that she didn't want to let him go. And that, she deduced, was more of an indicator of her feelings than she had though before. Finally, she sighed and threw caution to the wind. "I understand why you're mad at me, but—"

"I'm not mad, Cassandra."

"You just called me Cassandra. If anything, you're furious." Damon snorted and looked away, but she stepped closer. "Damon...I don't know what to do here, okay? Things are just so...so complicated! Half the time, I don't even know if I like you all that much." His eyes cut back to her, somewhat alarmed, and she broke their eye contact in humiliation. "Okay, that's not what I meant."

"You don't think I know that things are complicated?" Damon proposed. Cassandra turned her cheek and tried to formulate her feelings beneath the surface, but she had no choice when Damon grabbed her arm gently and guided her into an empty exam room next to them. He shut the door and turned around at Cassandra, who leaned up against the paper-covered exam table. "I meant what I said last night, Cass. Against everything I've ever known, I really did mean every word."

"I know that, okay? I know that." It was only hard for her to comprehend. She still avoided his eyes, but declared the truth while an embarrassing amount of blood rushed to her face. "I just find it hard to believe, that's all. This isn't something I'm familiar with...the whole one-night-stand, meaningless relationship thing. I don't know what to feel. Everything is just so different."

"Different good or different bad?" he prompted as he stepped closer. She barely noticed, as her eyes involuntarily rolled across the room as she came up with an answer.

"Good, I think. But I don't know. I sincerely have no idea. The point is, I'm sucking at this and I'm really sorry for what I did last night, but I-I panicked! I—" She hadn't realized it, but he had come so close to her that she could feel his breath on her lips. Her eyes immediately cut to stare into his, and she found her train of thought completely lost. His hips pinned hers against the edge of the exam table. Cassandra had to take a few long, deep breaths to steady herself. "If...If I have—If I _had_ sex with you last night, I was afraid I would feel something you don't want me to feel. I have a hard time believing that y-you care about me the way you care about..."

She couldn't even say her name. How pathetic.

Damon took a cautious step back, almost shocked. "This is about Elena?"

"How can it not be?" Cassandra crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't compete with her, Damon. I'm not a doppelgänger, I'm not pretending to be a saint, and I'm not human; I'm a witch, a dangerous one at that. I've done things that I'm not proud of...for good reason, but still some not-so-innocent things. I am not Elena."

He shook his head sternly and stepped forward to put a hand around her face. She flinched, but eventually found it to be warm and inviting. "I didn't ask you to be. Cass, I told you I meant what I said yesterday. I don't understand it and I can't explain it, but I know it. This is different for me, too. I'm freaking out right now because...I don't know why, but all I've wanted to do for the past few weeks is just...is just to _have _you, and I want it so bad it's messing with my head."

Cassandra swallowed back the thickness in her throat as he said the words in such a low tone she tried not to let the temptation win with her. There was a moment of silence, of frozen time, before Cassandra's breath shook in her speech.

"Can I be honest with you?" He nodded. "I think I'm afraid this is going to end up hurting me more than anything else has. I've been through some dangerous shit, Damon. Do you realize how terrifying this is for me?"

"I would never hurt you."

"Not intentionally, no. But how are we supposed to know that this won't end badly?"

"We can't know that," he said truthfully. "All we can do is try."

They stared back at each other for a while, the room filled with nothing but silence and tension. But for some inexplicable reason, Cassandra found her lips on Damon's, kissing him feverishly with all the passion in her body. He moved closer to her, his fingers bruising her hips as he kept her between his body and the exam table. The next thing she knew, she was sitting on the edge of the table, fighting gravity as Damon pushed his body onto hers. Her head started to spin and her body started to pulsate with desire, but just as she felt herself slowly easing back onto the table to bring Damon's body on top of her own, she suddenly felt the cold air against her skin when he stepped back.

"Fuck. I can't do this." He moved at least four feet back from her, as if being any closer would cause him to do something he would regret. Breathlessly, and somewhat annoyed, she hopped off the exam table, straightened herself, and frowned.

"See, we haven't even done anything and it's already too complicated—"

"Will you shut up for a second?" Damon's eyes snapped at hers as he took a few seconds of painful thought. He put his hands on his hips and let out a deep breath through his teeth. "I can't have sex with you. I want to..._sooo _bad, but I think if we do it'll end up becoming complicated, which you've made very clear you don't want to happen."

She shifted uncomfortably, knowing deep inside that he was right. Cass crossed her arms over her chest, shrinking into herself. "So what do you suppose we do, then?"

"Start from zero. Do it right this time." She gave him a confounded look, so he elaborated. "Go out with me? Tonight. Around...eight."

To be completely honest with herself, Cassandra didn't really think Damon was capable of the whole concept of 'dating'. If she were being even more honest with herself, she would admit that she didn't even know if she was capable of the concept of 'dating'. Her only experience was Ethan, but even then, it was nothing more than a few late-night takeout dates in their dorms. It was never anything fancy, never anything that didn't end with them making out feverishly until they were interrupted by one of their roommates.

"A date?"

"Yes." He half-smiled at her, thinking that her question was the cutest thing he'd ever heard. The way her eyes flickered up to the ceiling before she looked back at him and said the question was more adorable than anything Elena had ever done. Damon had to shake the feeling out of him before he gave up on the idea entirely and kissed her again. Similarly, she had to pretend she didn't see his half-smile, for it was too beautiful for her to bear.

"O...Okay..." She paused. "Eight o'clock?"

"I'll pick you up from Jo's." They smiled at each other for a moment, until Damon shook his head and moved towards the door. "Uh, I should get back to Liz."

"Yeah. Of course. I'll see you tonight." Damon opened the door and Cassandra walked up to him, her hand on the knob to close it when he left. He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned.

"See you later."

She closed the door behind him and pressed her back up against the frame, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in the whole time. Cass shut her eyes and tried to prevent herself from getting her hopes up. It took everything in her to slow her heartbeat down so Damon couldn't hear it down the hallway. The reality was, however, he was standing right outside the door, his heart beating just as fast. He could hear hers, too, and it made him smile to himself before he turned and walked down the hallway feeling like a fifteen-year-old human again. _What a strange feeling. _

xxx

Cassandra slammed the door so hard, it made Jo fall off the couch, which she had fallen asleep on surrounded by lab reports and patient charts. Cass was so angry she didn't even care that her sister fell face-first onto her floor and merely threw her purse onto the table at the door and kicked off her heels angrily. Jo lifted herself from the ground, brushed herself off, and rubbed her eyes rid of the sleep that stayed in them before speaking.

"H-Hey Cass. How'd it go?"

"Horrible. Just fucking horrible." Cassandra ripped out her fishtail braid and flipped her hair over, running her fingers through it madly, and then flipping back up to a level head to face Jo. Her face was red with anger. "I never want to see him again! The next time I see him I am going to literally turn him into dust!"

Just then, every piece of dust in the room lifted from its place and started to swirl around the room, creating wind that nearly blew Cass and Jo back twenty feet. Jo held onto the side of the couch for support while Cassandra watched the dust spin in her anger. Over the wind, Jo shouted, "Cassandra! Cassandra, stop the dust and we can talk!"

"I can't, I'm too pissed off!" Even as she said the words, she became even angrier at herself and at Damon for their horrid date. She wanted to punch something over and over again until she had no more left in her. Jo rolled her eyes.

"I can see that! Calm down, please!"

Cassandra scowled at her sister, who was just about to get sucked into the in-room tornado Cass had created. With all the strength she had in her, she clenched her fist so tight she could feel the blood coming from the indent of her nail. But eventually, the pain took over her anger and the dust in the room slowly came to a stop, settling around its original places with ease. When Jo was able to straighten herself out and get rid of the dizziness she'd experienced, she cleared her throat.

"I really need to dust in here." Jo shook her head and looked over at her sister, who stomped over to the couch and plopped down with her feet on the coffee table. Jo sat next to her, tucking her legs underneath her body. "What happened, Cass?"

Cassandra looked over at her sister and started to recount, beginning from the second he showed up on her doorstep two hours earlier.

_He had started out strong. When she answered the door, he was standing there with a rose in his hand and an irresistible smirk on his face. She looked beautiful, he remarked. She thanked him for the kindness, all the blood in her body rushing to her face and betraying the sensible woman in her. Her stomach churned with everything ranging from nervousness to desire, fluctuating between the two and everywhere in between. One look at him and her heart went racing, and she knew he knew that, which inevitably made it worse. _

_"Stop worrying," he assured her in the car, grabbing her hand softly. He may have been a vampire, but it was the warmest hand she'd ever held. He turned his head as they approached a stoplight, his blue eyes pouring into her soul. "I'll tell you again, Cassandra. I've never felt this way about anyone before. It's just you and me, the way it's always been. Maybe just a little more." _

_"It's the 'little more' part that's freaking me out." _

_"Then let's be freaked out together," he suggested, squeezing her hand. She gave him a smile and the light turned green, but he still held her hand all the way to the restaurant. It was a small little Italian place, a few miles outside of Mystic Falls. He was a gentleman, as he opened the door for her and led her into the restaurant. She asked how he'd found the place, and he got silent for a moment before answering that he'd known about it for a long time. She wanted to repeat her question for the lack of a satisfying answer, but before she could, the waiter came over and asked for their drink order. By the time she'd left, she forgot she'd even asked. _

_"What are you going to have?" Cass asked, pursing her lips at the menu. Damon shrugged. _

_"I don't know. Have you decided?" _

_"No. I'm leaning towards spaghetti and meatballs, but I'm feeling a bit dangerous," she teased. He chuckled under his breath while she reached forward to take a sip of her soda. _

_"Aren't you a rebel? I would suggest the eggplant parmesan. It's the best I've ever had." _

_Cass cocked an eyebrow. "Eggplant parmesan? That doesn't seem like your type of food."  
_

_He looked up at her over his menu. "The food I should be eating isn't actually on the menu..." _

_She quickly realized what he meant and withdrew from the inquiry. For a moment, there was silence, but then she spoke with a large, deep breath. "Yeah, well, I'm actually not really that into eggplant. I think it has something to do with one of the relatives I lived with, she always smelled like weird vegetables_—"

_But it's good, he persisted. In return, she repeated the fact that she didn't really like eggplant. Damon eventually conceded, grabbing his scotch to prevent him from putting his foot in his mouth. Cassandra stared at him suspiciously and narrowed her eyes. _

_"Why do you want me to get the eggplant parmesan so bad?" she inquired, a fair question if she should say so herself. Damon shrugged; no reason, he claimed. But she could tell that wasn't it. She put down her menu and crossed her arms at him, demanding the truth. Damon shook his head, telling her that she was overreacting, but Cassandra realized very quickly by the expression on his face that she wasn't. He tried to turn it around, to tell her it wasn't a big deal, that he had just thought she would like it, that was it. _

_"Damon," Cassandra said seriously, her eyes blazing with an indifference he didn't like. He knew he couldn't lie to her. Eventually, he admitted the truth, so nonchalantly as to assure her it didn't even matter. But the moment she found out that he had brought Elena to the restaurant before and she had ordered the eggplant parmesan and she loved it, Cassandra needed to hear no more. Calmly, she put her napkin on the table, raised herself from the chair, and graciously walked out of the restaurant to keep whatever dignity she had intact. _

_"Cassandra! Cassandra! Cass, wait! Wait, please wait!" Damon shouted at her as she continued walking away from the restaurant. A tear slipped down her face, and not long afterwards did rain start to drizzle from the skies. Damon flashed over to stop her in her tracks, causing her to turn away from him and wipe the tear from her cheek. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't realize it would be that big of a deal...I shouldn't have said anything about the eggplant, it was stupid! I don't know what I was thinking." _

_"I know what you were thinking, Damon. I knew it all along." The rain started to come down harder as she turned to look at him with an incredulous look on her face. "You don't want to be with me. You want someone to ease the pain you feel because Elena doesn't remember what you had. You did this to me when we were in the prison world and you're doing it again. There's no point in trying to trick yourself into believing you care about me anymore."  
_

_But I do care about you, he claimed over and over again, no matter what argument she brought up against him. Eventually, they were both soaked in the waters that poured from the sky in sync with her tears. Before she left, she merely said these three words. "I'm not her."_

"And so I found a bus that took me back here and...well, here I am." Cass turned away from her sister and wiped a tear off her face. Jo stared at her sister, invested, disgusted, furious, and sad all at the same time. Cass looked over at her and gave her a sharp laugh. "Don't be too distressed, Jo. It'll be okay."

"I-I can't believe he did that to you."

"Yeah? Well I can." Jo raised her eyebrows. "I knew he wasn't over Elena. I knew everything he said to me was a result of her forgetting about him. I can't blame this on him, I can only blame this on myself. I was so foolish to think he actually cared about me the way I care about him."

Jo let out a deep breath. "This seems like a huge conclusion to jump to over an eggplant." Cass frowned at her, and Jo rescinded her statement. She knew it wasn't just about the eggplant. "I know, Cass. I know. Maybe, with some more time, he'll come around."

Cassandra wanted to believe her sister, but she didn't really think that was accurate. She was starting to realize just how stupid she had been to believe him. And she _knew _it would have caused nothing but heartbreak. Even so, she didn't understand why it hurt so bad.

xxx

"Stefan?" Cassandra called out as she opened the door to the Salvatore house, reading over the text that Stefan had sent her. _Hey Cass. Need you at the Salvatore house for a bit. Bonnie stuff. Come over around 2? _She didn't want to, knowing that Damon was probably going to be with him, but she had no other choice. Bonnie came first, she promised herself that last night when she been awake thinking about how this would affect her life around everyone. Bonnie was the priority. Once they had Bonnie back, she could take off.

Go to school again, maybe. Find Ethan. Start a life; beautiful vampire-free.

But when she walked into the foyer, she found herself taken back by the sight around her. There must've been over a thousand roses spread across the foyer, marking a path to the fireplace in the parlor. Her eyes widened in surprise as the smell of fresh flowers filled her nose, quite honestly bringing clarity to her head. As she stepped down the stairs, she watched as Damon, who had been sitting on the couch, slowly stood up after swallowing the lump in his throat. She looked around, confused.

"What is this?" she asked. He stared at her, his heart racing in his chest.

"I wanted to do this at the water tower, but Stefan informed me that apparently it was torn down fiveish years ago. They have some new state-of-the-art plant or something, it's a whole big thing." Damon let out a deep breath. "For the record, I have never done something like this for Elena. I need you to know that."

"Damon..."

She locked eyes with him as he stepped closer to her, hesitantly but confidently. ""Cass, I don't expect you to forgive me for what happened last night. I just don't know how to figure this out. For the past few years, all I could do was think about Elena and...now I'm not, and it scares me. You have to know how stupid I am for doing what I did, and you also have to know how sorry I am."

He was standing across from her now, close enough for her to see the blue in his eyes. She let her eyes drift to the floor for a moment. "I know you are. I know. I just...maybe this isn't a good idea. Maybe we should wait."

"I don't want to wait," he urged, shaking his head. She looked up at him, slightly annoyed. "Look, I...don't expect you to forgive me and jump into my arms this very second. But I want you to know how serious I am about this. I'm an idiot, but that doesn't mean my feelings aren't real for you. You told me at that water tower that you don't have a fantasy in your head, that you don't have the idea of the 'perfect guy'. That your idea of romance consists of poets and flowers—but no chocolate, because you're allergic." Cass scoffed as she watched his lips turn up into a half smile, but then he became serious as he stared into her eyes with nothing but pure, unadulterated remorse. "But I have a fantasy of the perfect girl in my head. It's not Elena, it's you. And I think that you know as well as I do that you feel the same way. I'm him. I'm your perfect guy. And I want to be with you."

Cass wanted to argue with him, but she found herself too intoxicated by his presence to argue. That, and the fact that there was a part of her inside that knew he was right. Maybe she didn't know it yet, but Damon was her fantasy. Despite his many flaws, despite their many differences, he was right. He was that guy.

"Okay," she whispered, having nothing else to say but the breathless word. She said it again, and he took it as his invitation to kiss her and put everything behind them. The pain they felt inside of the prison world, the need for each other's company in order to get through the night, the longing that occurred at the most inconvenient times for both of them. All of that was gone then, and all that mattered in the world was the two of them in the middle of the Salvatore foyer.

Elena didn't exist. Kai didn't exist. But this time, it wasn't so they could forget the pain they felt. This time, it was for them.

* * *

**I am so sorry for the long wait on this, guys. I have been having some writer's block for this story and I have also been preoccupied with applying to colleges for the past few months. BUT, I submitted half of my apps last week and I just finished taking the LNAT today and decided it was time to get this done! I hope this was worth the wait :)**

**Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thanks :)

**LMarie99: **Thanks so much! Yeah, I was considering it, but I don't want to get rid of Kai because I like him too much as a character, and I'm definitely not gonna kill off Cass because lol that wouldn't leave much of a story, would it?! Yeah, that part was super stressful but they're together now so yayyyy! Sorry for the wait, but here's the chapter!

**DreamonAlina: **Haha I'll consider it. I actually forgot what I had planned but lol we'll see how it goes. But thanks so much! Here's the update, I'm so sorry for the long wait.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **He persisted, and look what happened! Finally :)

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **Aw, thank you so much. Yeah, she'll start to mellow out a bit with her powers from now on, and Damon will be a large part of that. They will be together for a long time and I've got some plans for Elena down the line that I'm sure everyone will like lol. Thank you for the review!

**Guest: **I changed that! I'm so sorry for the confusion. I typically write these chapters really late at night because it's the only chance I get to write so I sometimes make mistakes like that. Sorry for the wait, but here's the chapter! Thanks for the review.

**Guest: **Neither actually, lol. I realized I only had one AU chapter planned. I was originally saying that I would have two chapters that weren't episode-based but I really only had one. Next update will resume canon with 6x13.

**Guest: **We're getting there! It'll be worth the wait, trust me. Thanks for reviewing!

**geminigurl89: **I think I'll have him tell her sometime, but we'll see how it all goes down. I can't wait either, you know. Cass and Kai have a really strained relationship (even more than Jo and Kai) so it'll be interesting. We'll get there, though! Thanks for the review.

**Guest: **I mean, I thought what had happened in that chapter was good enough but thanks for the suggestion! Thanks for the review.

**klandgraf2007: **Thanks! Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

**Guest: **I wish!

**Guest: **Absolutely not! That would be disgusting.

**Gust: **I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**NicoleR85: **Thank you! Here's the chapter. Sorry for the wait, but I hope it was worth it!

**Guest: **Wow, that's dedication. I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! We'll see about the person who spills on Cass and Damon, but it'll probably be Kai :)

**DarkShipsSailHere: **Thanks!

**Saffronellen: **Thank you!

**Guest: **Sorry for the wait, here's the chapter!

**RandomFandoming: **Thanks so much! I do work really hard to put a lot of detail into my chapters, but this story is a little bit special because I don't typically focus on the episode as a whole. Thank you, that means a lot to me. Basically, I put on the episode and sort of go along with it while I write. With this story, it's a lot of skipping around to the scenes that I actually want to write because I don't write from lots of other perspectives. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **The last time I updated was June 16th, 2016. But still, I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **Yes, that's right. I haven't updated since June 2016, but it's been a pretty stressful time. Thanks for being so patient! I'm so sorry for the wait. Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **Eventually Cass and Elena will have a bit of a showdown, but we'll see who ends up telling Elena about it. Kai, Damon, or Cass. All three of them are in the running but we'll see when the time comes. I haven't been a fan of Elena since Season 4, either. I think the whole sleeping with Damon thing after breaking up with his brother was a really shitty move. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **I'm so sorry for the wait! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!


	17. We Have an Uninvited House Guest

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please!**

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**Chapter 17**

**We Have An Uninvited House Guest**

xxx

Damon stared down at the giant tower of cupcakes in front of him, the image of Bonnie Bennett in his head, smiling and laughing at some iconic one-liner he'd said at some point in their conversation together. When Caroline had told him to set up the cupcake tower for Bonnie's birthday party, he didn't realize how much it would effect him. He missed the judgmental witch more than he ever imagined he would. Those three months they shared were painful, sure, but they were also important to him.

Now she was there alone, on her birthday no less. And this was the best they could do for her. How pathetic.

"Happy birthday Bon-Bon." The vampire smiled grimly as he could hear the sound of footsteps faint in the hallway. When Damon heard the steps growing closer, he glanced over his shoulder to find Cassandra walk into the kitchen with a bunch of streamers in her hand. The witch's pink lips were pursed in dismay as she stared down at the paper in her hands and glazed her eyes around the room.

"Do you think we need streamers in the kitchen? I mean, this _was _where we spent a lot of our time together in the prison world, but it seems like a bit of a fire hazard." Cassandra walked over to the center island and set the streamers down on the granite. She threw a look at the dark-haired vampire, a small smile tinted on her lips. "Then again, those pancakes of yours were also a fire hazard and the house still survived."

"Funny." She watched him roll his eyes, a gentle grin on his lips. She laughed at him softly, merely making his smile grow as the sound filled the room. He opened his mouth to say something, but she interrupted him as her eyes caught the tower of cupcakes to his left. Suddenly, her eyes were as big as the moon.

"Are those...cupcakes?" Cass reached forward for one, but immediately stopped herself halfway with a cold halt. She looked up at the vampire with a cautious demeanor. "Caroline would be mad, right? After all, she did yell at me for attempting to eat _one_ of the sprinkles on the cake earlier."

"It's worth the risk." He determined while reaching over to grab a vanilla cupcake from the tower, careful to avoid the chocolate ones as he knew of Cassandra's inconvenient allergy. Damon swiftly and gracefully disposed of the paper and extended the cupcake for the young girl to take a bite out of. He watched as she bit into the side and moaned in ecstasy, fitting all crumbs into her mouth. A smile played on his lips while he took his own bite of the cupcake.

"These _are _worth it," she admitted.

"Mm-hm," he agreed while chewing. His eyes closed for a moment as he reveled in the taste of the sweet dessert and they only opened again when the sound of Cass's sweet giggle filled his ears like a beautiful song. His blue eyes adjusted to find her staring up at him coyly. Damon's eyebrows raised suspiciously in result.

"You have a little something..."

"Oh?"

She leaned forward with a smile and wiped off the bit of white icing on his upper lip. Just as she was about to pull away, she felt his fingers come up and latch onto hers, holding her thumb steady at his mouth. Slowly, he took the tip of her thumb into his mouth and kissed it, lapping at the icing that tasted a thousand times better with the salt of her skin. A throaty moan sounded in his throat and her eyes sparkled as he jerked her forward by the arm, quickly settling her body with his hands at her waist. Cassandra laughed once more.

"You're certifiable," she joked as she stared down at him with nothing but innocence in her eyes. Damon smiled back at her, his fingers tapping on her hip. She let her body sink into his skin willfully as he spoke with a softer, yet heavier tone this time.

"Cass, these last few days have been..." The witch waited for him to finish his thought as he gazed into her eyes. At last, he found the word. "_Real_."

"Real," she repeated slowly as she found her fingers raking at his raven-colored hair. The strands were soft, freshly conditioned. A laugh escaped his mouth.

"Yeah. Real." Damon cleared his throat. "It's just...I haven't felt this way in a long time. Maybe never. Sometimes I think it's a dream."

"It's not." Her voice was quiet when she realized how serious this conversation had gone. Three days she and Damon had been locked in his bedroom with no will to leave unless it was for food for her aching mortal stomach. She understood completely what he meant when he said he felt like it had been a dream. He must've sensed the shift in her mood as she thought about it, as his hand came up from her waist to brush her hair behind her shoulder and stroke her skin softly.

"What is it?"

"I keep thinking one day I'm going to wake up in your bed and we'll be back in the prison world where everything between us was...for lack of a better word, fake." Cass let out a long sigh and avoided his eyes. "And as much as that would _suck, _I would give anything to be back there right now. To see Bonnie again."

"Hey." He pulled her chin down to meet his eyes and pulled her closer to him so that she was reluctantly sitting on his lap. "We will see her again, I promise. We'll figure it out. We always do. And I promise you, Cassandra, I will never take advantage of you like that again. It isn't fake. It's real."

"If it's real..." she trailed off with her eyes to the side, debating on whether or not to continue with the words she wanted to say, "...then why does Elena keep calling you to reschedule your date?"

It was then that Damon realized she'd picked up his phone from the counter and waved it in front of his face with the 3 missed calls from Elena and the few texts that mentioned their cancelled plans along with plans for Bonnie's birthday.

"I didn't want to confuse her," Damon confessed half-heartedly. Cass raised an eyebrow. "Look, I made a big deal about winning her back when I returned from the prison world. I feel like if I tell her now, with everything that's happened, it'll be too complicated!"

"It already is complicated, Damon," Cass retorted as she lifted herself from his lap and distanced herself over at the dining table. She scoffed. "Come on. Sooner or later, she's going to find out! Unless you don't want her to, that is."

"Babe, stop." Damon lifted himself from his chair and reached forward to grab the teenager's hand. "Look, I told you before and I'll tell you again, you do not need to worry about Elena. I'm your guy, you're my girl...I _promise _I will tell her when the time is right, okay? Just...not right now. It's Bonnie's birthday today, I don't want to do anything to ruin it."

Cass was quiet for a moment. It wasn't that she didn't believe Damon when he said that he didn't care for Elena the way he used to, it's just that she didn't believe Damon when he said that he cared for her _more_. After everything he had been through with Elena, it wasn't hard to jump to the conclusion that she was a placeholder until Elena could figure out her feelings for him. And their relationship was so fresh that Cass was sure Damon would leave her in a heartbeat, no feelings hurt.

Then again, when she found his eyes, she knew that all of her doubts and insecurities were wrong. She had been in solitary so long she'd forgotten what it felt like to have someone care about her the way that Ethan had, the way that Damon does. _Stop being daft, _a voice inside her head chastised. _Elena is not a problem. Don't you see it in his eyes? _Those perfect, picturesque blue eyes...

Cass found herself leaning forward and pressing her lips to Damon's, losing herself in his intoxicating presence. He wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace and she did the same, her arms locked around his neck. The kiss lasted for a few seconds before she pulled away with a smile.

"I agree. Today should be about Bonnie and Bonnie only." Cass put her hands on his chest and let her smile linger for a moment, her mind going blank when he flashed his pearly whites back at her nearly causing her to become inebriated. But then, in the seconds following, their bubble was completely burst and they floated back to their complicated and messy reality.

"Damon!" a sharp voice called and Damon and Cassandra parted themselves as they found Elena Gilbert sauntering into the kitchen with her hands locked across her chest. A look of disdain was on her features. "We have an _uninvited _house guest."

"Hiya!" They watched as Kai danced his way around the corner of the corridor and into their sights. Cass's breath caught as she saw her brother standing in front of her with a big, goofy grin on his face. She could feel Damon tense beside her.

"Kai?" the witch breathed, the anger evident in her mumble. Her brother merely widened his grin, but Damon stared with a confused look.

"No...no, that's impossible. Because he's all merged, packed, and on his way to _Portland _by now, I'm sure of it!" The bitter vampire shouted. Kai ignored him.

"You know, lucky for me I found Elena! I forgot how massive this house was. She was kind enough to show me around." His eyes followed the room to the cupcakes on the kitchen island. They watched his pupils visibly light up. "Yum, cupcakes! Were we interrupting something?"

"No," Damon and Cass said at the same time. This exclamation had Elena cocking an eyebrow of her own in concern. Damon salvaged it before it could get out of hand.

"What are you doing here?" the vampire demanded of the murderous Gemini leader in front of him.

"Funniest thing. I need your help," Kai deadpanned as he held up a letter in his hand and turned his attention towards his sister. "I need you to give this to JoJo bean. Please," he added shortly, as if that would make it better.

Cass looked at Damon, confused, who looked at her back with the same type of expression. Elena watched Kai as he leaned forward to grab a cupcake and she swatted his hand away. Cass let out an exasperated sigh and beckoned her brother to her.

"Kai, just..._sit_," she commanded, pointing to the table beside her. After giving a menacing glance towards Elena, Kai reluctantly walked over to the dining table and sat down as told. Cass backed herself away from her brother and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now please explain to me why in the _hell _do you think I would do you any kind of favor, nevertheless giving a letter to our sister who you almost killed?"

Kai rolled his eyes. "You're so dramatic. The key word is _almost_." She was not amused by this, and he could see the coldness in her eyes. "Look, I haven't been able to find her using a locator spell. And, you know, good on her because under normal circumstances, I'd be super jazzed to gouge out her belly button."

"Why would we help you, Kai?" Elena demanded from her corner of the room with a look of disgust that was not appreciated by Cassandra. Kai shrugged.

"Well, in case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a sociopath." The witch before him rolled her eyes dramatically, as she was sure Elena and Damon did also. "I know. Shocker. I like being a sociopath, you know? I'm not burned by things like guilt or love. So then, this merge happened with our brother Luke, and I won. Which was great, because I absorbed his ability to do magic...but now I can't stop thinking about how Luke died. How Liv's life is...ruined. For some horrible reason, I can't shake how badly I feel about it."

A small laugh followed his statement and Cassandra saw something she'd never seen on her brother's face: remorse. It was so shocking she was nearly speechless. Good thing for her that Elena took over the burning questions she needed the answers to.

"You feel...bad?"

"Yeah. So when I absorbed Luke's magic, I must've gotten some of his qualities or something...like, empathy. So I googled how to process emotional pain—"

"Naturally," Cass added with a light-hearted shrug. Kai ignored her and continued, merely giving her a curt glance in the meantime.

"—and they said if you write everything down in a letter and burn it, you'll be healed. So I started writing and this...water literally started _pooling _in my eyes! Has that ever happened to you? Like, water just _oozing _out of my eyeballs...like I'm some alien creature excreting fluids..."

"You mean you cried?" Elena filled in. Kai looked up at her with wide eyes.

"Yes! And after that was done, I burned the letter...the feelings,_ oop! _Still there." He turned his attention to his sister. "So I really feel strongly that Jo needs to know how sorry I am for destroying our family. And you, Cassandra...you need to know how truly _terrible _I feel about everything that happened in the prison world. I mean, all the killing and even putting you there in the first place..."

"You essentially ruined my life, Malachai," Cass blurted out curtly, not realizing the hostility in her tone before the words escaped her. He scoffed.

"Trust me, I know. I know. And if I could give my empathy back to you to make up for it, I promise you I would." She frowned deeply, reveling in her disdain of the brother before her. "But Cass, I mean, let's face it, you always hated holding grudges! You still can't hold a grudge against our parents for shipping you off when you were a kid. You forgave them, didn't you? And you obviously forgave Damon for all the horrible things he did to you in the prison world. To me, it seems like I did you a favor when I ripped you away from this world, away from Ethan—"

"Okay!" Damon exclaimed, cutting off the murderous psycho as he brought his attention back to the conversation at hand and stepped beside Cassandra as she narrowed her eyes at her brother. "I think we're done here. Come on."

He reached out to grab her arm, but Cass widened her eyes a bit as a plan made its way through her mind.

"Actually," she said, causing Damon to pause with his fingers brushing lightly on her arm. She looked up at him. "Hold on a second. I think I have an idea."

"Cass, we can't trust him. This is ridiculous," the vampire whispered under his breath, but Cassandra shook her head at him and instead turned to the dark-haired Petrova doppelgänger in the corner, who had been staring at Kai with incredulity ever since he confessed his apologies.

"Elena, do you still have the Ascendant?" the witch inquired, to which she earned a slow and cautious nod from the vampire. Cass turned back to her brother pointedly. "You want to make it up to me, Malachai? So that I'll give your apology letter to Jo? Here's how. You're going to bring Bonnie home."

Kai cocked an eyebrow, but she just gave him a challenging stare as she waited for him to accept her proposal.

xxx

There was no denying the clear look of disgust upon Kai's face as he fidgeted with the Ascendant in his hand.

"Sad attempt at iron welding," he murmured under his breath. Elena was clearly peeved as she came to her defense at the window on the opposite end of the pool table in the dining area.

"I tried to fix it!"

Kai messed around with the broken Ascendant until one of its pieces inevitably fell off and onto the ground, clearly in the wrong position. He looked up at his sister, who had nothing but a serious look on her face, and scoffed.

"I can't bring Bonnie back with this!" he exclaimed. She tilted her head, confused.

"But...isn't this what you fought so hard to become? The all-powerful leader of the Gemini Coven? Seems to me if you're so powerful you ought to be able to fix one tiny little Ascendant."

He scowled. "I destroyed this so that it couldn't be used again!"

"Well, can we use that hunk of junk to send a message, at least?" Damon offered from his position leaning on the wooden beam at the threshold of the room. Kai held up the Ascendant as if his examination of it would be an answer. Damon tried another approach, softening his voice. "It _is _her birthday."

"It is?" Kai asked, blinking slowly as if this changed things. Cass's eyebrows knotted together as she watched Damon lower his eyes dramatically and inhale with reservation.

"Yeah. It's really sad, I mean...little Bon-Bon...she'll be getting all dressed up for a party no one's even gonna show up to!" Cass and Elena watched as Damon sauntered forward with a melancholic presence. "I wonder if she even knows that it is her birthday, or do all the days just blend into one vast sea of misery? I wonder..."

A sad smile twinged at his lips. Cass saw Elena smile at Damon from behind Malachai, recognizing his plan. Something about that smile made Cassandra's stomach lurch in jealousy, but she ached to ignore it and focused on her brother's newly determined look on his face as he glanced down at the Ascendant.

"One of the crown wheels survived, that's a positive. Plus, I am mega powerful." He looked up at Cassandra in effect, which resulted in another state-of-the-art eye roll. She didn't even care that they were supposed to have Kai on their side, there was no way she was going to add to his ever-growing ego. Kai turned his attention back at Damon. "What do you wanna say?"

"Well, Bonnie needs magic to get out, we just need to tell her where to find some," he reasoned. Kai nodded and examined the Ascendant further, turning around so he could lay all the pieces out on the billiard table with a magnifier at his side. The three in the room watched and waited, pacing all around and shifting positions as they patiently stuck around for the witch to piece together his Ascendant so they could get what they needed. Somewhere along the way, Elena decided it was a good idea to start talking aloud, as if that was helping things.

"Okay, so we know that Jo stored her magic in a hunting knife. Bonnie sent hers over with Mrs. Cuddles. What receptacle of magic am I not thinking of?" she exclaimed frustratedly. Damon turned his head at Cassandra curiously.

"Have any magic paintings hidden around the house?" he inquired, a small smile on his lips as he remembered the night they went to get the Ascendant for Kai in the prison world. Cass's cheeks became a powerful red as she blushed, remembering the same night. A nervous laugh escaped her mouth.

"Unfortunately, no. I took everything out when Kai crashed the party." Cass threw a pointed look at her brother, who merely smiled and let out a loud sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God. Heh. You two together is still totally revolting to me! Finally, a familiar feeling!" Cass shot him a warning glare as he merely grinned at his sister playfully. "Luke didn't take me over completely."

"Shut up, Malachai. Back to work." Cassandra looked back over at Damon and shook her head. "Anyways, the rest of the magic that I stored is nowhere near enough to garner more than one locator spell let alone a trip back to the live world. She needs something bigger. Where could it be?"

"Well, I was hoping there would be something closer, but let me give you a hint." Damon turned from Cass to Elena, who was pacing on the opposite side of the room. "Scorned lover."

"Katherine?" Elena answered immediately. Damon shook his head.

"Older."

"Silas."

"Hotter."

"I don't know, Silas was definitely hot," Elena confessed with a small shrug. Cass raised her eyebrows as Damon visibly shuddered. Elena took another moment before finally shouting, "Qetsiyah! Her blood is on Silas's headstone. I-It's filled with magic."

"Yep," Damon agreed. "So in Bonnie-land, that means on an island off Nova Scotia, there's a big magical battery waiting to be tapped! We just need to _remind _Bonnie of that."

"And what reminded you?" Elena asked as she stepped closer to Damon's side of the room, a concerned look on her face. Damon's eyes quickly cut to Cassandra before he shook his head with a shrug.

"I-I was just gonna plan a trip there, change of scenery. You know, there's only so much you can take of Mystic Falls on repeat."

He caught Cassandra's gaze quickly, and although a look of confusion crossed her features, she didn't have any time to ask for further information on this impromptu trip she'd never heard of before. Jeremy Gilbert stepped into the room, his face turning down in a menacing scowl as he noticed the evil psychopath in the room standing at the pool table.

"What the hell is he doing here?" asked the young kid. Kai just smiled.

"Hi."

It took a moment or two to explain to Jeremy what was going on, during which time Kai continued to work on the Ascendant in peace while Elena calmly expressed the situation they were in to her brother. Damon grabbed himself a drink from his table in the parlor and situated himself back on the wooden beam as Jeremy scoffed in disbelief.

"People don't just change like that," he determined. Damon took a sip out of his drink.

"People usually don't merge with their siblings, either."

Cass stepped forward at the table and looked at Jeremy. "Look, it's rare but there _have _been Geminis in the past that have claimed they inherited some traits from their twin when they merged. My great-uncle Keith couldn't draw for shit before he merged with his twin sister but when they did he somehow managed to step up from drawing stick figures to Da Vinci-like portraits. It's entirely possible, just...somewhat unbelievable." The last part was a murmur under her breath.

"For the record," Kai piped up, "I would have ben find with _any _of Luke's qualities...you know, the hair, the whole gay thing...oh, you know, maybe not the height, actually..."

Jeremy ignored the sociopath and looked up at his sister across the room. "You seriously buy this?"

"Look, I'm not saying we have to like him. If there's a way to tell Bonnie how she can get out—"

"We should trust the guy that changed personalities overnight?"

"Think of it like Elena in reverse," Kai suggested as he took a break from fixing the Ascendant to walk behind him and grab a glass of bourbon from the decanter by the window next to Elena. Everyone waited for him to explain. "You know, she was human...pure, dating the good Salvatore. Then she became an undead blood vacuum, stoped caring about right and wrong, and started dating the bad one."

"That's not how it happened." Elena seemed obviously bothered by this, for a reason Cass couldn't understand. As much as she hated her brother, he had a knack for telling the truth as it was. Kai took a sip from his drink and hummed.

"Mm, I'm sure I missed a detail or two. But I'm just paraphrasing what Damon told me in the prison world."

"Speaking of, there's a witch over there we'd like to save!" Damon interjected, attempting to stop the conversation before it went to a place where he wouldn't be able to step in. "So why don't you get your Gemini jumper cables and fix that thing?"

Kai shot Jeremy a pointed look before nodding at the vampire behind him. "Okay."

xxx

"So I can't send us back physically," Kai warned as he looked at the four others in the room who were all staring at him in anticipation, "but I can probably send a part of us back."

"Probably?" Elena prompted.

"You remember the movie _Ghost_?" Everyone in the room gave him an unimpressed look as he tried to explain it to them using the cultural reference. "Okay, Bonnie's gonna be Demi Moore because she's the alive one, obviously, and uh we'll all be a collective Patrick Swayze. Like _Ghost. _By the way, how much does that suck? About Patrick Swayze."

"Will she be able to see us or not, Kai?"

"I don't know, I've never done this before." He inhaled sharply. "So let's all just take a deep breath, right? Close our eyes...and...?"

They all obeyed his instructions, albeit reluctantly, and listened to the soft words of his chant as the magic filled the room. A wind blew around the parlor, causing the candles around them to sway as well as their hair in the man-made wind. And then suddenly it was like their bodies were pulled backwards and they landed in their exact position, only it was different. Everyone's eyes opened to find themselves in the same boarding house, but yet it was different. Damon looked to the side out of one eye, confused.

"What happened to the pool table?"

"Oh, my God," Elena breathed as she looked around. They were there, in 1994, like they intended. From the parlor they watched Bonnie emerge from the kitchen into the dining room, the clunky video camera in her hand. She was completely unaware of their presence as she sat down at a big red chair with her back to them all.

"Bonnie?" Jeremy called out as he rushed over to her, his eyes lighting up as he reached her chair. She didn't turn around. "Bonnie!" Still nothing. Elena approached behind him. "She can't hear me."

Cass watched Damon swipe his hand through the tray of alcohol on the back of the couch, only to find that his hand went completely through the glass without making a noise.

"We can't touch anything, either," he announced to the others. He turned back at the responsible witch. "Nice spell, Kai."

_"This place is my own, personal hell..." _Damon and Cassandra turned to see Bonnie at the table staring down at the video camera with a smile on her face.

"Drama queen," she determined softly as a tear pricked at her eye. She flicked to another recording, where a loud noise overcame the retro speakers. It was of her and Cass having their own mini music video recording to Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried to Live", iconically singing into their hairbrushes in their pajamas. Cassandra could feel the wetness appear in her eyes, that water "oozing out of my eyeballs" as Malachai had mentioned before. Another video appeared, this one of her and Damon pretending they were on a morning talk show. Everyone watched Bonnie's sad smile fade as she set the camera down and reached across the table to grab a bottle of bourbon and pop it open.

Damon stepped forward, shaking his head. "No..."

"What?" Elena asked.

"That bottle of bourbon is the oldest one in the house. We made a pact, if we couldn't take being trapped here alone for one more day, we'd kill that entire bottle." Damon paused, looking across the room. "And then we'd kill ourselves."

"What?!" Cassandra demanded as she rushed forward to Damon's side. He turned away from her, unwilling to look into her eyes. "Damon, you never told me that."

"It was different for us there. You wouldn't understand."

"How could you keep that from me?"

He turned to her to explain, but before he could there was a sudden pull and in the second that Damon blinked her found himself back in the modern-day Salvatore house on the floor staring at the ceiling. The four others in the room gasped back to life and rose from their positions on the floor. Elena looked around frantically.

"Wait, what happened? Why are we back here?"

"I don't know. The spell must require too much magic. I lost my connection," Kai admitted.

"Then reconnect," Damon suggested plainly as he looked at Kai with determination in his eyes. The witch shook his head.

"It's not that easy." Kai gestured to his own face. "You see this blood? Guessing that's not a good sign."

"Bonnie is going to kill herself!" Elena exclaimed, as if everyone here didn't already know it. Jeremy looked back and forth between Kai and Cass.

"Can she do that? Can she die there?"

"We couldn't, but that's because we were sent there under the original spell," Cass explained to Jeremy. Her eyes cut to Damon sharply. "But Damon and Bonnie were put there under a different spell that didn't involve a life sentence for horrendous crimes, so the chances that they can die in the prison world without resurrecting is pretty high."

"Ooh, yeah, that was rough. Do you remember that Cassie? We _both _tried every method in the book! Do you remember the guillotine that was at the DC museum—?"

"Are you serious right now, Malachai? Our friend is going to kill herself and you want to take a trip back down memory lane while we were suicidal stuck in a freaking prison world?!" She rushed forward and grabbed his jacket. "You take me back right now!"

"How do you plan on stopping her, Cassie?" Kai spat at her, though he showed no other irritation to her rage. "I'm not strong enough to take you back in full. She won't know you're there, you can't communicate with her that way."

"We'll find a way. I'll get her a message somehow."

"The message is already there," Damon announced as he stepped forward. Cass turned around, releasing Kai's collar so she could face the dark-haired vampire next to her. "In the atlas. I scribbled some notes on Nova Scotia, we just have to get her to see it."

"How do we open an atlas if we can't touch anything?" Elena asked, exasperated.

Damon sauntered forward to the selfish witch that sat down on the couch trying to regenerate from the loss of power he'd recently incurred. "We need to get Kai to crank up his witchy woo, don't we? So we can make physical contact."

"All while sending the three of you back over there? Sure, yeah. Hey, why don't I reanimate your parents for a tea party while I'm at it?" he deadpanned, but then paused as he realized how harsh the comment was. "Sorry. Insensitive."

"What if you just send me back?" Jeremy stepped forward from behind Damon, a determined expression all over his face. Kai paused.

"That _might _work, but I don't know. My magic might be strong enough to at least get you back there but the physical contact part is going to be hard. Moving between prison worlds isn't easy, you know." He looked up at everyone, almost apologetically, but still with a sarcastic undertone in his voice. Cassandra looked down at her brother.

"Then use my magic," she suggested softly. Kai looked up at her.

"I can't. You know I can't siphon you." His mouth turned down in a displeased look. "No matter how much I want to."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Kai, I know this. But just because you can't siphon my magic from me by force doesn't mean I can't give you magic. If I can supply you with enough magic to keep him there and let him make physical contact, it can work. I think I'm strong enough."

"You _think_?" Elena repeated doubtfully. Cass's head snapped up forcefully with her eyes narrowed at the vampire.

"I _know_. It's just a little uncontrollable, but I've been trying." She locked eyes with Damon. "I think I can do it."

"Cass..." he warned slowly, stepping closer to her, "...it's too dangerous. If you lose control of your magic, who knows what'll happen."

"I do!" Kai exclaimed as he raised his hand in an antsy way. They all looked down at him as he smiled childishly. "Well, for starters, she could trap Jeremy in the prison world forever. She could also make the entire world crumble apart and then everyone's gone like..._splat_." He looked around into everyone's eyes watching their reactions, and then suddenly widened his eyes and shook his head. "Gah. Insensitive again. Damn it!"

"It's too dangerous," Damon repeated to her. Jeremy stepped forward.

"No. She can handle it." Jeremy and Cass shared a look, one of understanding. She took in a deep breath as she tried to ready herself for the challenge that came at her fingertips. Damon watched the tiny bits of electricity from her fingers as her magic could feel it was ready to be used. Elena whipped around and looked into Jeremy's eyes, concerned.

"Jer..."

"Don't. Don't say anything. If I can get through to Bonnie, then we save her life. If not, at least I'll be with her when she dies." And at that point, there was nothing Elena could say. She knew there would be no convincing him otherwise. So she stepped aside and let him do what needed to be done.

"I will be okay, Damon," Cass whispered quietly as she could see the concerned look in his eyes. Damon nodded slowly and, much like Elena, knew there couldn't be anything done to stop them. Today was about Bonnie and all about Bonnie, he remembered. He stepped aside and prayed to whatever God was out there that both of them—Cass and Bonnie—would be okay.

Minutes later, Jeremy was on the couch with his eyes closed tightly as Kai sat a few feet away in his chant. The chant was echoed by Cassandra, who was standing to Kai's side with her hand on his shoulder, her fingers glowing with an orange heat to show that the magic transfer was working. Damon and Elena watched them all by the fireplace.

"I didn't know you and Bonnie had a death pact," said Elena as she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to stay calm with such high stakes. Damon didn't once take his eyes off Cassandra.

"It was my idea. I thought of it after we watched _The Bodyguard _for the billionth time. I never thought she'd go through with it." Suddenly, there was a spark in Cassandra's opposite hand, the one not touching Kai's shoulder. Damon jumped, and at that moment he realized he couldn't be in the same room. If he was there for another minute he would take Cassandra out and put her in his car and drive for miles until they were out of the way, ruining everything. She would hate him and he wouldn't care because she would be safe, but Bonnie would be dead. "I can't watch this."

Damon cleared the room quickly, fleeing up the stairs before his conscious had a second thought. Elena followed him, hoping to clear her mind of the worry she had for Bonnie and Jeremy. While in his room, Damon searched his liquor trolley for the oldest bottle of bourbon that he kept close to his bed for times like this one. He found it, old and dusty at the bottom of the trolley, just as Elena walked into his room.

"Our suicide bourbon," he announced as he straightened and looked at it in longing. "Bonnie and I made a pact we'd drink this together, and that's what I'm gonna do." He took a long swig from the bottle, feeling the dust particles around the rim of the opening but not caring once he tasted the divine whiskey inside. As he reveled in the taste, Elena took the bottle out of the hand and held it up in toast.

"To you, Bonnie." And she drank, finding it burned all the way down her throat. She coughed and Damon laughed as he took the bottle back and had another sip. Elena shifted uncomfortably.

"So, um, we never really got a chance to talk about that kiss." Damon's eyes widened slowly, mid-swig. "And you never called me back about our date plans."

He slowly lowered the bottle to his side and swallowed his alcohol. The intoxication reached his bloodstream just in time for this conversation. "Ah, Elena, about that..."

"It's Cassandra, isn't it?" she cut him off quickly. Damon froze. "I've seen how you were with her all day. How worried you are about her now. Something happened between the two of you since that night at the hospital when I kissed you."

The raven-haired vampire avoided his ex-girlfriend's eyes. "Elena, it wasn't just since the hospital. I slept with her in the prison world and...maybe I didn't know it at the time, but it...meant something to me. To her."

"You slept with her while you were in the prison world?" Elena repeated. Damon poured himself another glass of bourbon to try and mend the awkwardness he felt in his bones. "But you didn't know I was compelled by Alaric."

"I didn't," he admitted. "But I was hurting. And she was hurting. And it was easier to hurt together than alone."

"But then you came back and you said you wanted to be with me." Damon nodded slowly. "Was that a lie?"

"No, Elena. Of course not. And this has nothing to do with you, I just feel like...I feel like _me _when I'm with her. I feel good enough. I feel like I'm finally with someone who would choose me first."

The words hurt coming out of his mouth, but he knew that they were nonetheless true. He'd tried to convince himself that being with Elena was what he'd wanted because he'd wanted it for so long, but the truth was that he was making himself miserable second-guessing her love for him because of his brother. That wasn't fair to either of them.

"So Kai was right?" Elena prompted, and he could hear the anger starting to come out in her voice. "By turning into a vampire, I completely changed."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Elena, he's a psychopath. Don't let him get in your head."

"I'm not, but you just said that you want to be with someone who chose you first. I didn't because when I was human I chose to be with Stefan." Her eyes suddenly caught his with a disbelieving look. "Do you think that if I was human again I wouldn't choose you?"

He sighed. "Okay, we're doing this."

"It was just a question, Damon."

"No," Damon admitted as he walked around her and threw his hands up in the air. "No, I don't think you would choose me. I think that's always why I've had to fool myself into thinking I was happy when we were together. Because I know that there will always be a part of you that belongs to Stefan because you had a choice on that bridge. You chose Stefan. And human you will _always _chose Stefan, just like Katherine did."

"And you think Cassandra's different?" Elena inquired. Damon frowned.

"I know she is."

"How do you know, Damon? You've been sneaking around everyone's backs since the prison world apparently! That's not a real relationship."

"It's real to me, Elena. It's more real than I could've ever imagined." She watched his jaw lock and his mouth press into a hard line, signaling that he was done with the conversation. But when he saw the broken look on her face, he realized how harsh this has been and he remembered that this was _Elena _he was talking to. He stepped forward cautiously. "Elena, I'm sorry, it's just...I want to be happy. Can't you let me be happy? For once?"

"I'm trying." She turned her cheek from him. "I thought _I _would make you happy. I thought I was what you wanted so I've been trying to love you back the way you want me to and until just now I think I was starting to get there."

"Don't you see? _That's _the problem. We've spent so much of our time trying to convince ourselves to be happy with each other that we never realized that we weren't actually happy. It's like the idea of us being together was more realistic than the real thing." Damon shook his head. "We don't work, Elena. We never worked the way we should have. It shouldn't have to be this hard."

And then she was silent, like she was debating whether to agree with him or slap him in the face. Eventually, she ended up shaking her head and mumbling, "I'm going to go check on Jeremy," before walking away to the door. But just as she reached it, she found herself forced back into the room, unable to leave. Damon turned to her and she looked back at him, her eyes wide.

"What's going on?"

But downstairs, Cassandra found herself opening her eyes as she felt the magic she was giving to Kai suddenly cut off. When her eyes opened and adjusted, she watched Kai gasp for air as a poker in his stomach went through and through, the sound of it clanking to the floor. Cassandra turned to find her blonde-haired sister standing behind them, blood stained on her hand from where she had injured Kai.

Jeremy jumped up from the couch, his eyes wide. "No, what are you doing?!"

Liv brought her hand up and forced him back, crashing him into a table behind the couch. Cass stepped forward towards Liv, a hand out in a peace offering.

"Liv, please. Please stop we're trying to save Bonnie, she's in trouble."

"I don't care." There was an unstoppable rage in Liv's eyes. "I have to do this, Cassandra. He doesn't deserve to live after what he did to Luke."

"You think I don't know that? I know that, Liv, but you can't, okay? You have to stop!"

"Or what?" Liv questioned, and then her hand was flying in the air, along with Cassandra. She hit her head on the thick wood of one of the Salvatore walls and there she was, out like a light, the world fading black before her with no way to stop it.

Damon and Elena listened from upstairs as Liv trekked through the house looking for Malachai in evil revenge. They heard her walk into the Salvatore study and kick over a chair in blind rage, shouting her brother's name. Damon froze.

"She's right below us."

"_You can't hide from me!" _Liv shouted beneath them. Damon turned and grabbed the bottle of bourbon from his trolley and walked over to the fireplace where he started to kick at the wall despite Elena's protests and concern. He kicked until there was a nice sized hole in the brick.

"I said I was saving this for something special," Damon reminded Elena as he showed her the old bottle of bourbon before throwing it down the hole. Below them, they could hear Liv's scream and the whoosh from the fire that came out at her. Elena rushed over to the threshold of the room and cautiously stuck her hand out of the doorway, finding herself relieved when it was clear. She fled the room to find her brother and Damon flitted downstairs as fast as he could to find Cassandra. He found her lying in the foyer on one of the stairs, her body limp and unconscious. There was a large gash on the side of her head and a dent in the wall from where her head hit.

Damon found himself on the floor, kneeling and pulling her body into his arms. He touched her face softly. "Cass? Cass, can you hear me?" He could hear her breathing, so that was promising. "Come on, wake up!"

"Liv..." she whispered under her breath as she groggily came back to consciousness, shifting in Damon's arms. He held her as she coughed up a dry breath and slowly came to her surroundings, cradling the gash on her head. "I'm okay. Damon, f-find Kai. Save Bonnie."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked her, nearly ready to bite into his wrist to heal her wound. Cass stopped him, shifting upright in his arms and shaking her dizzy head.

"I can heal it with my magic. Go, please. I think Kai and Jeremy went into the kitchen."

He didn't want to leave her, but he knew she'd be adamant about it and wouldn't let him stay. So reluctantly he flitted over to the kitchen and found Elena crouched at Jeremy's side trying to wake him. Damon moved over to Kai's side and shook him violently, attempting to wake the murderer up from his unconsciousness before it became eternal.

"Hey! Kai, wake up! Wake up!" He bit into his wrist and fed the witch some of his blood, which seemed to do the trick. Kai's eyes widened a bit as he came to and Damon heard Elena gasp behind him from Jeremy's arousal.

"Jeremy!" she exclaimed. He nodded at her.

"I'm okay."

Elena let out a sigh of relief for her brother, but there was another voice in the room at that point. Cassandra stumbled at the threshold to the kitchen, her fingernails gripping at the wooden walls.

"Jeremy, please tell me Bonnie's okay." She seemed defeated, like if she didn't get the answer she was looking for she might pass out. Jeremy nodded to them all.

"I saw her. She's gonna be okay." He smiled at his sister, the witch, and the vampire in the room that all cared for the Bennett as much as he did. Elena let out another sigh of relief, as did Damon and Cassandra. But Cass's sigh of relief, turned into a breathless sigh, and Damon whipped around just in time to keep her head from hitting the floor as she collapsed. It seems she passed out anyways, but at least this way their friend was safe.

xxx

Sometime later, Cassandra found herself fully awake and groaning from the massive headache she had. She had woken in Damon's bed, apparently having been put there by the vampire who had thankfully rescued her from completely cracking her skull open on the tile floor. Cass managed to find her way to the bathroom, where she threw up a little in the toilet, most likely a result of the massive concussion she was sure she had. After running her mouth under the tap and swishing some of Damon's mouthwash, she doused her face in cold water so she was more alert. This allowed her to bring her hand up to her wound on her forehead, where she used her magic to stitch the wound back together. Instantly, her head felt less dizzy and didn't pound as much thankful to her magic, but as a result she watched the mirror shatter into pieces in front of her. Cass screamed a little when the shards broke and jumped back from the sink in shock.

"What the hell?" Damon rushed into the bathroom to find Cassandra staring at the broken mirror. He looked at her to find the wound healed on her forehead and sighed, leaning against the bathroom's threshold. "You know, vampire blood would've taken care of that concussion _and _spared the broken mirror."

"Sorry," she murmured under her breath. "I just feel a little weird about it, you know? I'm a witch, I'm not supposed to be putting vampire blood inside of me for _any _reason."

"I know. I'm just glad you're okay. How are you feeling?"

"Dizzy. Hungry. Happy," she confessed with a small smile at the end. "Bonnie's okay. That's all that matters. But you know, I'm still a little upset about that whole death pact thing. Didn't you think for a second what it would do to me if you were both gone?"

He sighed. "Unfortunately, I didn't. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it sooner, it was just...a dark time for me and Bonnie. I didn't want you to have to know about it unless you had to."

"Suicide is never the answer," she reaffirmed seriously. Then, with a small scoff, she added, "Believe me, I should know. Kai wasn't kidding, he really did use that guillotine at the DC museum."

"Well, Jeremy said that she got our message so hopefully we can get her back soon enough." Damon stepped forward and cupped her cheek with his hand, which was about double the size. "You seriously need to get some rest tonight, Cass. You haven't used magic like that in a long time."

"I'll be okay," she told him softly, her breath warm on his. "If you want to drive me to Jo's, though, I wouldn't be opposed. I don't think I should be driving tonight, at least."

Damon shook his head. "You're not going anywhere. You're sleeping here."

"But Elena—"

"She knows," Damon interrupted her quickly, stopping whatever comment was about to come out of her mouth. Cass knotted her eyebrows in confusion and Damon sighed. "I told her about us because it needed to be out there. I know we agreed not to do anything today because it's Bonnie's birthday but I figured she deserved to know and I didn't want to keep it from her anymore. It was unnecessary drama that I didn't need right now."

Cass was quiet. "How did she take it?"

"Not well. She and Jeremy are staying at Bonnie's house for the night for some alone time. I guess he decided he wants to go to some art school so he'll be leaving soon."

"You know..." Cass slipped out of his grasp and walked into Damon's bedroom, earning a confused look from Damon's eyes as he turned around and watched her fiddle with her fingers as she stopped across from the fireplace several feet away from him. "Look, I've never been a Team Elena fan or anything, you know that, but I think with everything that's happened today it's best for us not to rub it in her face. I'll sleep in another room tonight if you don't want to drive me home, I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Why is that?"

"Because Damon, as much as I really _don't _like her for everything she's done to you I just can't help but feel guilty because..." Oh no. This was worse than the actual vomit that came out of her mouth before. When she had thrown up before it had been like a sour piece of candy but now she just felt her stomach turning in knots as if she hadn't eaten anything for the whole day and she was starting to get hungry-nauseous, which was worse than actual nauseous. She wanted so badly to tell Damon how she felt, but she also didn't want to be the terrible person that she knew she could be. Nevertheless, it was inevitable. "Because I can't stop the way I'm feeling right now and it's really not fair to anyone."

Damon stepped closer, shaking his head. "Cass, what are you saying?"

A tear strolled down her cheek as she tried desperately to keep it under wraps, but she couldn't. "I'm saying, Damon, that...that this is _real _for me. It really is and—and I don't expect you to feel the same way but the last time I felt this way was almost thirty years ago and it was never as strong as the feelings I have for you are and I just don't know what to do here."

His eyes were wide and glossy, his blue eyes intoxicating. She found herself lost in the sea of blue as he stepped forward with such hope and optimism in his eyes with a slow nod.

"Say it, Cassandra. Please."

"I shouldn't. We shouldn't right now, Damon. I don't want to ruin things."

"You won't." She found herself comforted now with his hand on her face, and yet the touch seared her skin and his breath consumed her. "It's just you and me. There's no Elena. There's no Kai. It's just us."

"I love you." And there it was, with another tear that came down her face. "I meant what I said on that water tower, I would choose you first. And I will, every single time. I love you."

"I love you," he said back, and before she got a chance to process the wonderful words that he had just confessed to her she found his lips on hers in a breathtaking kiss, one that almost sent her back into a state of unconsciousness. But she felt safe in his arms and knew that there was no way he was letting her go, and that was all she needed.

* * *

**Long overdue chapter. Hopefully this will hold everyone over for a while until I update again. Thanks for reading! Please review.**

* * *

**LMarie99: **Haha I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!

**DreamonAlina: **Haha thank you! It's the thought that counts. Thanks for the review, I hope you liked this chapter!

**RHatch89: **Thank you :)

**vampangel25: **Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the update.

**Guest: **Haha of course. That's what they attempted to do this chapter but remember they've been "together" for about six-eight months at this point so "slow" is pushing it haha. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Guest: **Elena will be handling it in the next couple chapters. Not so well as you saw in this chapter but she'll come around eventually. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **LOL I know Elena needs to move on already! Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **I think that will end up happening at the bachelorette party this season and that will be at the peak of Damon/Cass's relationship so it will be a fun one if I can get around to it. Haha maybe when Bonnie's back they can have that talk :P Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **:)

**CWTV-TeenWolf-Lover: **I know right! Damon had a momentary lapse in judgement lol. Finally! I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Aw thank you! I totally agree lol

**Guest: **I guess? I don't know if that was phrased to be a bad thing but I don't think being a feminist is bad so thanks I guess she is!

**ThePhantomismyLove: **Here you go! Thanks for reviewing.

**Guest: **Here you go! Thanks for reviewing.

**Guest: **I'm a die-hard Twilight fan so I'm gonna go with Elena Gilbert. I'm not a huge fan of either on-screen adaptations because in the book Bella was a pretty strong character and I feel like they didn't quite capture her personality in the movies...and then Elena in the books was freaking badass and I loved her so much but the show ruined her. Elena is definitely worse!

**Guest: **Don't lose hope! I will write once in a while, but I am going to college soon so it will not be frequent at all. But there are times where you'll get an update (like now haha). Thanks for reviewing!

**klandgraf2007: **Thanks so much for understanding! Hope you liked this chapter.

**belladu57: **Thanks!

**Guest: **Here you go. Thanks for reviewing.

**Guest: **Thank you!

**daddylilgurl38: **Here you go! Thanks for reviewing.

**0001234: **Yes! It was good, but I would've liked it if both Salvatores died and no one ended up with Elena or Elena died and the Salvatore brothers were happy because seriously like no one needs her lol. But I was sooo happy they ended the series with Defan!

**K: **Thank you so much for your review! Haha I like her and Kai's scenes together too actually they're a lot of fun to write interactions for. Ethan will return again soon, I promise! I do love his character as well, it's such a heartbreaking story but you're right in saying that Damon and Cass make a lot of sense. Again, thanks so much for the review. Hope you liked this chapter!


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